Note: this page is a supplement to Apple's documentation for Messages via satellite, intended to help Aware Outdoors users get the most out of this capability. It reflects our own testing; where anything here disagrees with Apple's documentation, trust Apple's.
Recent iPhones can send and receive text messages by satellite with no extra hardware — which means they can send Aware Outdoors commands and receive weather, air quality, wildfire, and other data far beyond cellular coverage.
Two fine-print items from Apple worth knowing: SMS messaging via satellite (the kind Aware Outdoors uses) depends on your carrier supporting it, and satellite connectivity is not offered on iPhones purchased in a few countries (for example China mainland and Russia) — details are on Apple's page above.
In our testing, the following are required:
Basically, the phone has to be trying to connect to a cellular network and fail before it will allow you to enable satellite messaging. If cellular is disabled, the phone will not allow you to enable satellite messaging.
If you were already beyond cellular network range and had your phone in Airplane Mode, our testing shows that you only have to disable Airplane Mode, enable Cellular Data and wait about five seconds before satellite messaging is available. You will also need a clear view of the sky and horizon; the iPhone's Connection Assistant helps you aim at the nearest satellite.
We recommend you start using Aware Outdoors with your satellite-capable iPhone while you're still on a cellular network. This will make it faster and easier to verify your device and try a few commands with standard SMS messages. Using our free mobile app makes this even easier because it will remember the Aware Outdoors SMS phone number, commands and will even compose the messages for you.
Test satellite messaging with Aware Outdoors from a low-risk, semi-remote location before you rely on it in the backcountry.
Aware Outdoors will reply to your command message quickly. If the reply is long and split into several messages, they will be sent about a minute apart to try to deliver them in order but this cannot be guaranteed.
Apple says that SMS messages destined for a phone that is receiving over satellite will only be sent to the device if they are a reply to a recent outgoing message. That is, you have to have recently sent a message to Aware Outdoors to receive a reply over satellite. That's the model Aware Outdoors is based on, but Message Groups might be an exception: if you haven't sent a message to Aware Outdoors for some time, incoming Message Group messages might be blocked.