Android smartphones will soon have satellite connectivity with THIS new update

The Android announcement has come at a time when Apple is going to launch its first satellite-enabled iPhone 14 on September 7 at its Apple launch event.

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New Delhi: Google is planning to bring satellite connectivity in its next Android update, which is going to be Android 14 possibly next year. Hiroshi Lockheimer, senior vice president at Google, has announced the new development in Android on its official twitter handle and said that he had been excited to design Android for satellites and to support our partners in enabling all in the next version of Android.

He tweeted on September 1, “Wild to think about user experiences for phones that can connect to satellites. When we launched G1 in '08 it was a stretch to get 3G + Wifi working. Now we're designing for satellites. Cool! Excited to support our partners in enabling all of this in the next version of Android!”

Wild to think about user experiences for phones that can connect to satellites. When we launched G1 in '08 it was a stretch to get 3G + Wifi working. Now we're designing for satellites. Cool! Excited to support our partners in enabling all of this in the next version of Android! — Hiroshi Lockheimer (@lockheimer) September 1, 2022

The announcement has come at a time when Apple is going to launch its first satellite-enabled iPhone 14 on September 7 at its Apple launch event. Google doesn't want to leave behind from its arch rival in satellite connectivity technology and has been ready to lock horns.

Though Lockheimer didn’t provide any detail regarding it. If it’s a software update, then it can be pushed to older smartphones through software update, making them satellite-enabled too. But as of now, nothing much can say about it until more details come out.

What is Apple Satellite connectivity?

According to media reports, Apple is working on a satellite feature for a long time and now it may be available with iPhone 14. This is an emergency feature which allows users to send out SOS messages if they are in trouble or stuck somewhere wihout having network connection.