We Tested the iPhone 14's Emergency SOS via Satellite 

So cool, nice that they included a 'test mode'

This reminds me of how sailors get email on a submarine. Love that we are seeing this type of technology being used by everyone.

People keep talking about the increased safety in hiking, but this feature could save lives in situations like extreme weather, widespread power outages, and major traffic accidents in remote parts of the country. When time is of the essence in the most dire of circumstances, two additional methods to contact emergency services change the odds.

I live in Tasmania, Australia. Travel 5 miles out of town and there's no cell phone coverage. At 70 years of age and a landscape photographer, I'm often in the middle of a forest where I would never be found if injured. I bought the iPhone 14 Pro fot this reason. Great vlog!!!

This _needs_ to be more widespread. More phones need this tech in them.

This is very cool for emergencies. I carry an inReach when I travel and can communicate via satellite when I am out of cell service which happens often. I love having the ability to communicate with family members at any given time regardless of cell service or not. There is a subscription but worth every penny.

I hope that in the not too distant future this will be standard in all phones everywhere and will also include the rest of the world, calls and video calls via satellite. But I think the satellite infrastructure will have to improve to get there.

Very good informative video thanks CNET :) love your videos.

Great report! Excited to try it by myself

Awesome video. I was always wondering how it would work. This pretty much answered it

My house has a tin roof so I have poor signal so this comes in handy in emergencies. I saw it pop a few times when I didn’t have a signal.

I used to work for an NGO’s IT department. We used to do election observation missions. It’s a huge endeavor as we would fly in teams of staff and VIPs like former government officials and the sort. Once in country, we would rent out like half a hotel in the capital city and deploy teams to different regions within the country. The teams would spend a couple days in the region prior to Election Day or days, and would visit polling stations on Election Day and observe taking notes such as did they see intimidation, soldiers, gangs, or fraud. Also, did voting appear to be transparent. The thing is, one team might be assigned a region that might cover half a state and the infrastructure such as roads, cell towers, and electricity was questionable the farther you get from the capital. So we would buy these SPOT GPS trackers meant for weekend adventurers that connect directly to satellite for $200 or $300 per device that would allow us to track teams. And if anything happened, there was an sos button on the tracker that basically sends an email to your emergency contact saying this person has hit the sos button. The fact that this can all be done from a cell phone in 2023 really blows my mind. This is pretty huge. I hope one day, this is expanded on a international level. This reminds me of a CNET reporter back in 2008 I think was with his wife and toddler. They were driving to family during a holiday and got stuck in a really bad snow storm. Everyone was looking for them for a couple days. Turns out there vehicle was stuck with no cell signal, so after a day and night being trapped, the CNET reporter guy left his wife and kid in the car and went to go find help. The wife and kid were eventually found safe, but the CNET guy unfortunately passed from hypothermia. Imagine if they were in that situation today, they could send an alert before things ever got life threatening serious.

That is so cool!

Apple has come up with a true winning feature!

Fantastic explanation. Perfect.

One feature that’s not only good but lifesaving

Sounds great! There are many things I don't want/need and occupy lots of memory/storage. At least, this one sounds good and useful to me. Only a personal opinion.

Super helpful thank you!!

should be on all phones! game changer

Very cool feature

My friend Norm Jones engineers at DOD made the US military communications satellite system. He put one up in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. It was the only communication for a time. The iPhone could be communication when regular systems are down.

Not available in my region yet, but a very good backup. The coverage is never 100%, but generally have never even thought of owning a satellite phone. I’ve never felt that I’ve needed this feature while outback, but I’ve grown older, fatter and more prone to hurting myself so it’s something I need to think about if I’ll go hiking outside coverage. Niche use case, but a very necessary one for the 1% and 1% of it that actually would need this.

Great feature, i have familiy with severe allergies so this gives me the peace of mind thats comforting.

This would have been really helpful after the hurricanes that hit Florida earlier this year which knocked out cellular service for many days.

This saved my life!!!!

Now this is what I need

Apple should launch this feature globally so that anyone in distress can use this feature given if this is so useful and works without failure.

Nice feature to have on my 14pro

Very very helpful and should be mandatory on phones in the future

Awesome video ..

I just wish it would come to Australia quicker There are so many deaths from people being lost in the outback, it’s not the animals

Insane!

Amazing

Same functions a the Garmin In Reach, nice that it's on a phone.

The thumbnail looked like he was gonna get abducted by aliens 😂

It seems to be logical because if you are an outdoorsy person, that does a lot of hiking can help you during extreme conditions and give you the exact location where you are to get help. I remember reading news several weeks ago where a young lady went on a hike alone and never came back to her checkpoint. Authorities had a search rescue for a long time but had to call it off due to extreme weather. Unfortunately, the young lady did not make it after sub freezing temperatures 😭 . I'm not sure what happened, but it is very likely that the person got lost and needed help. Having an iPhone 14 could have saved this person life.

Apples test site? Yea.... ganna have to test that without the eye of apple. Take it into the rockies and try that stuff again

A more likely scenario if you are stuck in the middle of nowhere: iPhone user: let me use emergency SOS iPhone: _ out of battery _

it's really helpful in these scenarios

I think that this is excellent for the people that likes to go out on the beaten path.

As some in the satcom field, people don’t realize how impressive this is. Often the equipment that I work with is large and clunky, so for Apple to not change its antenna footprint on its phone and somehow have the power to ping a satellite that’s insane. With the increased interest in hiking over the past couple of years, this is a great feature and hopefully a step closer to nearly complete cell coverage via satellite. Be patient though, it’s not easy for one company in one country to get access to satellites around the world so people in other countries might have to wait.

So because i'm an iPhone 14 owner from the UK, i should just curl up and die quietly if i ever get into trouble, but my American friend, well Apple are more than are happy to save him. Thanks Apple 🙄

At last we just got this in the UK cheers apple

Perfect review

Send SOS to space and you might get kidnapped by aliens instead 😂😂😂😂

We’ll think… haven’t buy Apple Watch yet but if they include this feature for sure I spend my money on it!

I’ve got the 14 ProbMax it gives myself better piece of mind knowing it has this ability!

I guess i need to travel to the US or Canada just to try the demo

With this feature on my 14 ProMax I could assure you that I feel more safer when traveling and stuff

I think should be also equiped with nano beacon which can go up in sky to maintain connectivity and their will no blocking of signals..

The ability to communicate via text messages would be a very handy option to have, even if it costs a subscription because sometimes you don’t need emergency services, but you may need to contact your family or your family. May need to contact you when you are out in the middle of nowhere. I can do this on my Garmin unit already, and would be super handy if that same feature was available on our iPhones. Sometimes you need to communicate even when it’s not an emergency. Unless Apple never allows this feature, I will have no choice but to continue to use my Garmin unit.

I hope that everyone aware about this feature will be moving forward and this will be how we are going to take calls in neat future 🎉

So what do you press for "Whats the Emergency" questionaire if someone holds you up with a gun while you're in the car, stealing your jewelry, which causes you to panic and hit the gas, crashing into a tree, breaking your leg and trapping you in the middle of nowhere and then your car catches fire?

This cool feature will put thriller movies like Fall(2022) out of business.😊

Beautiful thumbnail

nice video. This feature is also present on Apple Watch series 8 and watch ultra right?

Im hoping Apple eventually sets up satellite texting, similar to a Zoleo.

That moment when you are stranded on an island and you were relieved that you have SOS via satellite but you also remembered you don't have a subscription, its like apple is teasing your survival " we do value your life and its $69.42 a month 😊"

We all know this guy does not do any physical activity LOL

Keep in mind that in 1 year from its launch and less than two years this feature will require a payment. God, SOS since Apple thinks that way.

Its OP.

Going to Smoky mountains trail hiking in April of next year and planning on upgrading from 13 pro max trade in

Um back and forth communication is totally possible over satalite. Apple just left it out. Cool fetaure. But how can Cnet not know this 🤔

As a ham radio who frequently communicate radio through satellite is normal. But for a phone, its new for me

This feature is underrated by most RU-vidrs because they're all a bunch of yuppies who never touch grass. I have switched to android from IPhone 6 but will b switching back for this feature

This man sounds like he is speaking while about to sneeze

I had to use it a few weeks back when my work truck blew the engine on top of a mountain and eastern Idaho, within a few hours I had a tow truck there and within an hour the police were there to assist me

That's where my place is at!

The whole idea of being charged to use this feature absolutely disgusts me

It's features like this is why I'm thinking of switching over to Iphone from Android. Both have it's pros and cons, but in case of an emergency, I'd like to be assured I can rely on my phone in case of an emergency no matter where I am.

nice jacket.. can u please share link to it.

This should be government subsidized and encouraged for all future smartphones.

Actually contacted the international space station the phone call went very well

Hi! Can you please try this feature under water? I am curious if the satelite signal can work under the sea. 😂

This is neat! Now they should work on ALL 911 dispatches having text messages capabilities so when the line is too busy people can still get thru.

This guy sounds exactly like those stereotypical nerds that come to fix your PC

So it turns out the 14 isn't just "like the last iPhone" and Apple is in fact, [wait for it......] innovating.

What you do need to know about this is that the satellites don't go further north or south than 52 degrees. It is admitted that seevice may be degraded at locations beyond 62 degrees but that's on the flat. In mountainous terrain degradation or complete failure can occur once you get a bit beyond 52. I know of one failure with a device on this constellation at about 57 degrees North in mountainous terrain. So Northern Canada, Alaska, Iceland, Scottish Highlands, most of Scandinavia, forget it.

I was wondering could you tell me or do you know if the MacBook Air with M1 chip is still worth getting and do you think the MacBook Air with M1 chip will get a lot of software updates?

I’m not ready to give up on Garmin inReach.

My ❤

I hope they come out with the technology to connect even with those obstacles.

Now no more “no reception” in upcoming horror movies.

Can you cover the new HomeKit new architecture. I recently downloaded iOS public beta 16.2 2nd beta and it broke my Home App for my household. Now I am the only one in my that can turn on and off lights.😩

Does this SOS service use What3words for location services ?

Very cool feature and I’m glad I have it. I’m disappointed it’ll only be free for 2 years. That doesn’t feel like an Apple thing, they usually provide safety features for free no matter what.

Tapaskar🙏🇮🇳. I wanted this feature since childhood on every Nokia phone that I have owned. Something in Nokia said to me that this thing is ready.

Song in the background is Boom Bap Rat by Lightfoot

I live in Helena MT and the Find My feature does not work. Not sure if I'm out of satellite range? Apple says it's normal.

My iphone 14 doesn’t have a demo mode for the emergency SOS?

As someone with a 14 pro max i tested the demo and found out i can’t use it in my yard because of the trees

Only in USA and Canada, only for 2 years after first purchase date ?

4:08 actually

This is better then a garmin

So in Horror movies there is no excuse for no cell signal to call for help.

I wish I could get connected with 👽 Aliens by using an iPhone!!!

My Iphone 14 pro is US Model but i am not getting this feature of try demo of emergency SOS

This should be tested on sea

It would be great if we could find out where our clients are precisely within the city, even if the cell service is unavailable. Hopefully we can integrate this feature into our App

MKBHD gave a heads up about this video a long time ago