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Apple gives iPhone 14 users another free year of Emergency SOS
- Apple launched Emergency SOS via satellite in 2022.
- The service was initially made to be free for the first two years after an iPhone is activated.
- Apple has announced that the iPhone 14 will now get an additional year of free access to the service.
Apple has announced that existing iPhone 14 users will now get an additional year of free access to Emergency SOS via satellite. This means anyone who bought an iPhone 14 between now and when it launched will end up with three years in total of free access to Apple’s service.
Apple first launched Emergency SOS via satellite in 2022 for the iPhone 14 lineup in the US and Canada. The feature gives users the ability to text with emergency services even if they are out of range of cellular and Wi-Fi networks. It has since expanded to 16 countries and regions and now also appears on the iPhone 15 series.
Apple claims that the service has saved many lives around the world. The company has even put together a short four-minute video of people explaining how they benefited from the feature.
Earlier this year, some UI placeholders suggested that Google Messages could also gain support for satellite texting. There were also hints that Garmin could be involved with the project. It’s rumored that Google could use Garmin’s existing infrastructure to enable a similar feature to Apple’s Emergency SOS via satellite service. Garmin’s emergency SOS via satellite services are available in over 150 countries.