Earlier this year, we learned that Google Messages was adding satellite connectivity for Android, letting you send messages without a Wi-Fi or mobile connection. AT&T and T-Mobile followed suit shortly after, announcing plans to support satellite texting for their respective subscribers, and Apple added it to iPhones in iOS 18.
Now, Samsung appears to be catching up in the space race.
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Recent versions of several Samsung apps, including Phone, Emergency SOS, and Samsung Messages, all have code referencing satellite texting.
Android Authority was the first to report the news, spotting it in a recent APK teardown. Here’s what the code says:
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- Phone: “You’re in satellite mode. You can send text messages, including to 911. Emergency calls may still connect if a mobile network is available near you.”
- Emergency SOS: “If you call emergency services when you’re out of range or not connected to a mobile network, we’ll connect you via satellite so you can send an emergency text.”
- Samsung Messages: “Samsung Messages doesn’t support satellite messaging. To send and receive texts via satellite, you need to make Google Messages your default messaging app.”
Perhaps the biggest takeaway is the part about sending messages including to 911, meaning this won’t be limited to emergency texting. From Samsung’s wording, this seems to be regular text messaging.
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Samsung announced in February of 2023 that it was working on “non-terrestrial networks modem technology,” leading many people to hope satellite texting would arrive with the Galaxy S23. When the S23 arrived without the feature, as did the Galaxy S24, it seemed as though Samsung had abandoned the project.
The apparent plan of bringing it to some Samsung apps and not to others might be a compromise that lets the feature finally arrive.
Android Authority warns that just because something shows up in an APK teardown is no guarantee the feature will ever see a public release. It’s still good for Samsung users to know, however, that the company hasn’t given up on the feature.
