Google’s Pixel 9 Satellite SOS feature is powered by Garmin and Skylo

Summary

• Google’s Pixel 9 series supports an Emergency SOS mode via satellite connectivity.
• Garmin and Skylo have partnered with Google to power the satellite SOS feature.
• Satellite connectivity is expected to be available later this year in the US, and it will be limited to the Pixel 9 series, at least initially.

Satellite connectivity for smartphones first entered the mainstream market with Apple’s iPhone 14 in 2022. The Cupertino-based tech giant’s Emergency SOS feature enabled users to get in touch with emergency services via satellite when stuck in areas with no or little coverage.

Although Android devices, too, have long offered an Emergency SOS mode to help you quickly get in touch with emergency services and saved contacts, the feature didn’t make use of satellite connectivity. That changed earlier this week, when Google announced that its latest Pixel 9 series can reach out to the heavens above to transmit your distress signals to emergency services via satellites.

It’s worth noting that satellite connectivity for the Pixel 9 series isn’t live yet. According to Google, the functionality won’t debut until an update in “Winter 2024,” and it will only be activated “once all the necessary software and APIs are updated and the service is registered with the satellite network,” reads its support page.

Google has partnered with two companies to turn the feature dream into reality, though only in the US (at least initially), and on the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold only.

Garmin and Skylo fuel Pixel’s Satellite SOS

Olathe, Kansas-based Garmin, and Mountain View, California-based Skylo are the two companies powering Google Pixel’s satellite SOS feature.

Although Google itself didn’t reveal who’s behind its satellite connectivity tool, Garmin and Skylo did in separate press releases. The former already runs an established and proven emergency response team under its Garmin Response. Essentially, what this means is that if a Pixel 9 user sends out a distress signal via satellite SOS, they will be connected to Garmin Response’s “professionally trained emergency incident” team that is staffed 24/7. The team will then coordinate a rescue effort by bringing in “law enforcement agencies, emergency service providers, search and rescue professionals, embassies, coast guards, and more.”

Skylo, on the other hand, serves as the backbone of the operation. According to the company, which was founded in 2017, it powers the “end-to-end satellite service” for the Pixel 9 series by utilizing its licensed mobile satellite spectrum for connectivity.

Skylo says that it has sent more than 10 million messages via its satellite network in its years of existence, while Garmin says that its Garmin Response team coordinates more than 17,000 SOS activations a year, implying that Google’s service is in reliable hands.

It’s worth noting that at its recent Worldwide Developer Conference, Apple announced that with its latest iOS 18 (still in beta), users would be able to leverage satellite connectivity for regular messages too, complete with end-to-end encryption. Although this functionality isn’t available on Pixels yet, it’ll likely be the next milestone, alongside expanding the tool to older Pixel devices.