The Emergency SOS via satellite feature of the iPhone 14 was launched just last month, and based on a new report, it has already saved one person.
Upon realizing he was stranded in a remote area of Alaska, a man used the new SOS feature of his iPhone 14 to call for help.
The man was traveling via snowmobile from Noorvik to Kotzebue when he suddenly became stranded around 2:00 a.m. on December 1.
Luckily, he was able to use his iPhone 14 to send an Emergency SOS via satellite, which alerted Alaska State Troopers to his location.
Working with local search and rescue teams, the Northwest Arctic Borough Search and Rescue Coordinator (NWAB SAR) dispatched four volunteers to search the Nimiuk Point area directly to the GPS coordinates provided by the Apple Emergency Response Center.
According to the Alaska Department of Public Safety’s dispatch post, there were no injuries reported.
Emergency SOS via Satellite
The Emergency SOS via Satellite feature was launched in November, after it was announced at WWDC 2022. It is supported by Apple’s $450 million investment.
This life-saving feature enables the iPhone 14 models to connect directly to a satellite, which allows users to contact emergency services even when there’s no Wi-Fi or cellular coverage. This basically means an iPhone 14 user can call for help whenever they find themselves stranded or without any cell signal.
Users are asked a simple series of questions to determine what kind of emergency they’re experiencing, along with other vital information, and turned into a compact text message.
The text is then sent via satellite to either of the two routes: an emergency response center that supports compressed messages, or through an Apple Emergency Response center and passed to the correct location.
The feature is currently free to use for the first two years, indicating that Apple plans to charge for it in the future.