Despite Apple debuting satellite messaging on iPhones a couple of years back, the feature has yet to make an appearance on Android phones. While we’ve been seeing and hearing rumblings about the feature for quite some time now, it finally looks like the final pieces are starting to align as T-Mobile users running the latest beta of Android 15 are getting a satellite surprise pop up on their phones.
Android 15’s satellite connectivity could help you text your friends
More details of how satellite connectivity will work on Android have surfaced
While these users aren’t able to communicate using satellites yet, there’s new activity that’s brings some life to the feature in the form of a settings page that explains how the feature will work and whether folks accounts are eligible. The news comes from users on Reddit, who are chiming in to share their experiences (via Android Authority).
Coming soon?
Of course, it’d be exciting if this was actually working in some shape or form, but at least these changesmean that the feature has at least made it to the next step, and could be set for a public release sometime in the near future. For those curious, the settings menu for satellite messaging can be accessed by updating to the latest Android 15 release and then heading into theNetwork & Internetsettings.
As stated before, there’s really nothing to get excited about here, just some small updates that will be needed ahead of the feature’s launch. It was two years ago when T-Mobile and SpaceX announced its partnership in an effort to bring satellite communication to smartphones. While we haven’t really heard too much in the way of updates since that time, we did get one major one at the beginning of the year, with T-Mobile announcing that satellites had finally been launched in order to get the process started.
There’s been a lot of speculation about when this service will come to fruition, with most sources indicating that it will make its debut with Android 15 and the Pixel 9 series phones. To be clear, there are a lot of moving parts here, and this is something that requires many things to properly align to get things working. While it’s a nice feature, it isn’t the most pressing feature for most users, and that’s not to downplay how big of an impact it will have for some, but for most, this isn’t really going to be a game changer.
