If you cursed after the addition of the satellite connection on the iPhone 14 while holding an Android smartphone in your hand, good news: you could soon benefit from it too.
On the occasion of CES in Las Vegas, Qualcomm, the specialist in processors and mobile connections, announced the upcoming arrival of the function of sending messages via satellite in Android smartphones, connected watches, cars and any other product that can be equipped with a Snapdragon processor. 8 Gen 2. A possibility that resembles the feature launched by Apple in France in mid-December, but also differs in its philosophy.
If Apple has chosen to focus the use of the satellite connection on emergency calls, with a specific route and with the desire to do it quickly and with a very light weight, Qualcomm sees its proposal as an exchange of messages in both senses. And for any “moment in life”!
Technology for messaging services.
Snapdragon Satellite will work in collaboration with Iridium, which owns a satellite network, and Garmin, a specialist in connected watches that has developed an identical emergency service for runners or those who are victims of various concerns. Garmin-enabled call centers will also be used for emergency messages.
Because just like on the Apple brand side, the satellite connection is only used for sending messages, not photo or video or audio call. The only concessions granted: the non-limitation of the number of characters and the possible incorporation of emoji with the message. On the other hand, Android smartphones that will be equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip and its 5G modem will be able to receive messages in return.
This is undoubtedly one of the main differentiating points between Qualcomm and Apple: the former’s satellite communication concept is above all a technology made available to partners, not a service in itself for the end user. It is the operators, the applications and the associated messaging services (WhatsApp, Messenger, running applications, etc.) that will decide on the use, the limitations, but also and above all on the (high) cost associated with the communication. Apple has decided to support everything for at least two years and restricts usage to emergency messages only. Qualcomm does not have this decision to take into account and is content to provide a technical solution to those who will integrate its chip.
Messages sent both ways
We were able to discover this solution in the middle of the Nevada desert, on a test prototype smartphone. The principle is the same as with the competition. Deprived of any mobile connection, simply raise your smartphone to the sky in search of a satellite in the Iridium constellation, which covers the Earth widely from pole to pole and multiple frequency bands. The smartphone will tell you which direction to face to correctly pick up a signal. Then you can send your message or recover the ones that were sent to you during your disconnection, whether for emergencies, simple personal messages or others. As long as it’s just text. Everything is extremely fast to use and simple.
The first high-end smartphones to be powered by Qualcomm Satellite should appear in the second half of the year. Some models already launched with the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 platform are not yet equipped with it. But the San Diego company could also extend its technology to other media and we are thinking in particular of vehicles that are based on its on-board systems or even on connected watches, very useful for fans of walks or races outside the circuits. usual.
Source: BFM TV
