Apple has set the tone with Emergency SOS and so competitors are doing everything they can to improve the feature. Chipmaker Qualcomm is now working on a better alternative for Android phones.
Emergency SOS is one of the new features of the iPhone 14. Residents of the United States were the first to be able to use it, and now the feature is slowly being rolled out across the rest of the world. Android chipmaker Qualcomm is not sitting still.
Emergency SOS on the iPhone
Did you miss what Emergency SOS is on iPhone 14? That can happen, which is why we are explaining it again. If there is an emergency in an area where there is no mobile or Wi-Fi network, you can still reach the emergency services. This gets to Apple and forwards it to the services.
Qualcomm sees that too and isn’t sitting still. The chipmaker wants to send it to Android and then improve it as well. During the CES, it is unveiling its plans. The feature should become available on Android devices that have the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor and the X70 Modem.
Soon Android will also go by satellite. (Image: Pexels)
Snapdragon Satellite for Android
The feature for Android devices will be called Snapdragon Satellite and will be launched in various countries in the second half of 2023. Phone makers who want to make use of it will have to cooperate with Qualcomm for hardware and software development. That has to do with how they want to deploy the service.
Qualcomm wants to go a step further than Apple. The service shouldn’t just be available in emergency situations. You should use Snapdragon Satellite whenever you want. The company describes it as a kind of premium messaging service. By the way, that doesn’t mean Apple will apply it to the iPhone (14 Pro) at a later date.
Apple is busy further developing Emergency SOS. For example, the company recently filed a patent that also enables calling and video via satellite. So it won’t be surprising if Qualcomm later wants this for Android as well. So we’ll just have to wait and see.
