I Got a Demo of Samsung's Galaxy S25's Satellite Texting for Verizon Customers

Yahoo

02-03-2025

While iPhones have been able to send emergency messages over satellites for years, consumer Android phones have lagged behind, with only a few, such as the recent Google Pixel 9 series, offering similar services. Now, Verizon is providing its subscribers who own Samsung's Galaxy S25 series of phones connectivity to satellites, too. I saw a demonstration of it in action.
2025 is shaping up to be the year that satellite-to-phone connections could dramatically expand. Some phone-makers have tried to secure connectivity for select models, and carriers have sought to offer service to most of their subscribers by partnering with satellite companies. While T-Mobile is beta testing its own system with SpaceX's Starlink network, Verizon demonstrated how its subscribers will be able to use Galaxy S25 phones to send messages through satellites.
Verizon first announced its partnership with Skylo to provide its mobile subscribers with satellite connectivity last August. Over a recent video call, folks from Verizon's satellite partner Skylo demonstrated how this will work for normal texting. They used a Samsung reference device (an internal-use-only phone) running an Exynos 5400 modem, which is also used in the Google Pixel 9. It was set up to not connect to a cell network, thus simulating how satellite-only connectivity would work.
They asked for my personal cellphone number, sent an SMS message, and I received it -- once taking around 8 seconds, another time taking 27 seconds. I texted a response, which took 17 seconds to reach their device. While the reference device was set up to contact their test server rather than to an actual emergency responder, Skylo demonstrated routing SMS texts through satellites.
Skylo's service can also connect to emergency responders similar to how iPhone owners have been using Emergency SOS for years. In the demo, I saw how a user would run through a questionnaire triaging the details and severity of their emergency, which would all be addressed by a live person and forwarded to emergency services in their area.
"What we're trying to show here is the production level experience, which we've worked really hard to make seamless," said Pete Saladino, Skylo's global head of marketing. "And again, we're using existing satellites that are already in the sky."
Read more: Texting From Space: Even More Phones Might Get Satellite Connectivity in 2025
Apple has partnered with and made large financial investments in Globalstar to use its constellation of satellites to support its iPhone 14, iPhone 15, iPhone 16 and iPhone 16E owners with satellite connectivity. Skylo, on the other hand, doesn't have its own satellites -- instead, it's partnered with half a dozen providers including ViaSat, EchoStar and Inmarsat to use their satellites. It operates as a sort of signal manager to ensure, in this case, Samsung Galaxy S25 owners with Verizon service are covered by satellite networks already operating in orbit.
Skylo's already-operating satellite network is an advantage for Verizon in the carrier race for satellite coverage, though it only supports Galaxy S25 phones for now. Pixel 9 phones have satellite connectivity through a separate agreement with Skylo. T-Mobile's partnership with SpaceX kicked off a new phase last month when it launched a beta for connecting subscribers with Starlink satellites (which incidentally is available for Verizon and AT&T users, too). Along with Verizon, AT&T is still planning to connect its customers to AST SpaceMobile's network of satellites, which just received approval from the US Federal Communications Commission to begin testing this arrangement.
Skylo's advantage is using already-deployed networks of satellites, which currently cover a combined 50 million square kilometers of territory (about five times the land area of the US). While Skylo's half-dozen network providers have differently sized satellites and capabilities, the company aims to provide a uniform experience and access, no matter where they connect. For instance, they don't want customers to be able to send photos in one part of the globe and not in others under their same service.
Phone-to-satellite connectivity has been limited to SMS messages and small data (like with Apple's iMessage), but no more sophisticated communications beyond that yet. Skylo is working on delivering voice calls that will hopefully be available by as early as the end of 2025, though it could arrive in mid-2026.