Samsung Messages hints at satellite support, but should you get your hopes up? (APK teardown)

In January, Samsung reiterated that it was sunsetting Samsung Messages and moving users to Google Messages. Those who don’t wish to move can still use the app, but the company made it clear that Samsung Messages was no longer its priority. Since then, Samsung has added the ability to edit sent messages and auto-delete OTPs, and was spotted working on features like birthday reminders and live location sharing. Now, a new report suggests that Samsung Messages could soon also get Satellite Messaging functionality, but will it? Let’s find out.

A recent Reddit thread analyzed Samsung Messages 16.1.02.2 and found these two strings related to Satellite Messaging:

• 0x7f130e3b: satellite_network_mode_title: Limited support in Satellite mode
• 0x7f130e37: samsung_message_only_support_sms_when_satellite_network_mode: When in Satellite mode, Samsung Messages only supports sending and receiving text messages. RCS messaging is unavailable and multimedia files like pictures and videos can’t be attached.

Indeed, these strings exist in the stated version. But before you get your hopes up, this version of Samsung Messages is not the most recent one around, even if it was recently uploaded to third-party app hosting websites. You can see that newer versions like v16.1.10.13 also exist on these app hosting sites.

We checked older versions of Samsung Messages, and these strings were added with v15.5.31.9 sometime in December 2024.

Since then, no new strings have been added for Satellite mode support. If Samsung had been actively developing the feature, we would have seen more strings added in the last eight months.

There’s still a chance that Samsung is indeed working to bring the feature to light, developing it away from public eyes. But it’s not fair to conclude that the feature is in active development based on these old strings alone. We need more corroborative evidence in new app versions to indicate that the feature is coming soon.