Verizon also offers a fallback option that sends your message on a detour through space if you have the correct Android phone but are in a location that prevents it from picking up a Verizon signal and sending a text message to a friend.
On phones from the Pixel 9 and Galaxy S25 series, the Skylo satellite-to-phone service, which was previously only available for emergency messages, is now available for regular messaging. Prior to having this choice, Verizon customers using those phones would experience a lag; according to the company’s press release, the necessary changes “will continue over the next two weeks.”
Due to the 44,000-mile round journey the data must travel from a phone to the satellites that Skylo employs in geostationary Earth orbit, as well as additional network overhead, using it may cause a momentary lag. In February, we tried an S25’s emergency texting feature. After correctly pointing the phone skyward, it took roughly five seconds for the message to be sent.
At MWC, CEO Parthsarthi Trivedi informed us that Skylo’s system does not support the updated RCS standard; it only supports SMS. Your chat buddies will be aware that you are sending sparse communications via space, free of typing indicators and higher-resolution multimedia, among other RCS improvements, even if you don’t boast about sending your texts off a satellite that is more than 22,000 miles in the sky. (See also the texting experience with Google Voice.)
On Thursday, Charter and Comcast, two cable companies that resell Verizon’s network, declared that they would be providing its Spectrum Mobile and Xfinity Mobile customers with the same choice.
There is no mention of a fee for this roaming in any of these announcements. Google stated that the satellite-SOS function for Pixel 9 phones would be free for the first two years of its release. An additional year of free service was then provided by Apple, which made a similar commitment when it introduced its Emergency SOS for the iPhone 14. Even after adding functionality for iMessage discussions with non-emergency contacts to make this roaming option more usable, Cupertino has not yet disclosed price plans for its satellite connectivity.
According to Google’s early March Pixel Drop update, T-Mobile customers with Pixel 9 phones should be the next to gain enhanced texting via satellite. T-Mobile did not respond to our question about when that would occur today.
Other upgrades to satellite communication are underway for all three national carriers. Similar to T-Mobile and Verizon, AT&T also enables Emergency SOS on the latest iPhone models, which are dependent on Globalstar satellite service. However, Verizon and that carrier are also relying on AST SpaceMobile, a startup, to launch a small constellation of low-Earth-orbit satellites that will provide voice and internet connectivity in addition to messaging.
In the meantime, T-Mobile has already made its messaging service available to beta testers using SpaceX’s Starlink. The service will cost $15 more per month on all but T-Mobile’s most costly plan. T-Mobile and SpaceX are requesting regulatory approval to upgrade to voice and data. Verizon and AT&T customers will also be able to sign up, but the monthly fee will still be higher at $20.
Consumers of all three carriers might also need to account for the expense of any reservations they may have about paying SpaceX’s divisive, government-disrupting CEO, Elon Musk.