Users of the Apple Inc. AAPL iPhone 14 can celebrate as the tech giant has announced a free extension of its Emergency SOS via Satellite service for an additional year.
What Happened: The Emergency Satellite service, which debuted last year, has been offered for an extra year at no additional cost to iPhone 14 users.
The Emergency SOS via Satellite service enables users to reach emergency services even without cellular or Wi-Fi coverage, and its life-saving potential has already been demonstrated globally.
As a result of this extension, both iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 users will be able to access it for free through Sept. 2024.
The service is accessible in 16 countries and regions, including the U.S. and Canada, and is also available to iPhone 15 users.
The Emergency SOS via satellite has been crucial in many life-saving situations, such as when a man’s car plunged over a 400-foot cliff in Los Angeles and when hikers got lost in Italy’s Apennine Mountains.
Kaiann Drance, Apple's vice president of Worldwide iPhone Product Marketing, shared the company’s pleasure in offering the service free for an additional two years to iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 users.
See Also: How To Turn Off SOS On iPhone
In addition to this, Apple has also launched Roadside Assistance via satellite service, linking users to AAA during car problems outside of cellular and Wi-Fi coverage areas.
Why It Matters: The Emergency SOS feature on iPhones has proven to be a highly useful, life-saving tool. It has saved numerous lives, such as those endangered by the Maui wildfires, while others benefited from timely response by authorities thanks to crash detection.
The feature, which is activated when it detects crashes or when the side button is pressed five times rapidly, was introduced by Apple with the iPhone 14 series and Apple Watch Series 8. Older iPhones also have the Emergency SOS feature but without satellite support.
Image Credits – Shutterstock
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Read Next: How To Enable Crash Detection On iPhone And Apple Watch
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