iPhone 14 Owners Get 2 Free Years of Emergency SOS Service: Everything We Know
The Emergency SOS service for iPhone 14 is scheduled to launch in November.
Apple / Screenshot by Sarah Lord/CNET
This story is part of Focal Point iPhone 2022, CNET’s collection of news, tips and advice around Apple’s most popular product.
At Apple’s “Far Out” event today, the company announced a new safety feature for the?iPhone 14 — Emergency SOS via satellite. If you are in an area outside of cellphone service, your iPhone 14 will soon be able to connect to satellites in order to send distress messages to emergency responders.
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Apple has tweaked the iPhone 14 antennas to be able to connect to satellites, using a system that shows you where to point your phone toward the sky. The company also developed a text compression algorithm to reduce the size of messages so that they will work with satellites’ limited bandwidth.
The Emergency SOS service will eventually become a paid add-on for iPhone users, but iPhone 14 owners will receive two free years to start. Learn everything we know about the free Emergency SOS service plan.
When will the new iPhone 14 be available?
Apple will start taking preorders for the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max on Friday, Sept. 9. The new phones will become available on Friday, Sept. 16. ?
When and where will the Emergency SOS feature launch?
Apple plans to launch the Emergency SOS service for all iPhone 14 models in November. It will be available to iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max users in the US and Canada.
Who will get the two free years of Emergency SOS service?
Apple hasn’t released all of the details of its Emergency SOS plan, but it appears that anyone who purchases an iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro or iPhone 14 Pro Max will receive the two free years. It’s not clear yet how long the offer of two free years of service will be available to buyers of the iPhone 14, but Apple’s press releases indicate that, at least for now, all iPhone 14 owners will get two free years of Emergency SOS services after the purchase of their iPhones.
How much will Emergency SOS cost after the first two free years?
The full details of the Emergency SOS service are still coalescing. Apple has not yet announced a standard price for its iPhone 14 emergency service. We’ll keep this story updated as more information emerges about the cost of the Emergency SOS service.