The following flagship Google telephone, the Pixel 9, might include extra connectivity capabilities together with sending messages via satellites, if a brand new rumor is proved true.
The Google Pixel 9 will use the subsequent era of its in-house Tensor chipsets, the Tensor G4, which can have a Samsung Exynos 5400 modem, a supply advised Android Authority. Whereas this is not too shocking to listen to Google might follow an Exynos modem (final yr’s Pixel 8 and its previous Pixel 7 use an Exynos 5300 modem), the rumor suggests this implies the Pixel 9 will have the ability to join via satellites.
Thus far, solely Apple’s iPhones have broadly been capable of talk via satellites, which use the proprietary Emergency SOS system to ship textual content messages relayed via Apple-manned operators to summon emergency providers. Others have tried to launch related choices — as an illustration, chipmaker Qualcomm unveiled Snapdragon Satellite tv for pc at CES 2023 as a proprietary answer that producers might choose to put in of their telephones, although none did and the providing quietly shuttered on the finish of final yr.
Learn extra: Satellite tv for pc Messaging: The 2023 Telephones Development That Wasn’t (But)
As an alternative, Apple’s Emergency SOS apart, the development of satellite tv for pc connectivity looks as if it’s going to observe a slower and extra open pathway. Qualcomm debuted its Snapdragon X80 modem at MWC 2024, which helps the final NB-NTN (non-terrestrial community) normal of satellite tv for pc connectivity inside the 3GPP Launch 17 set of communication requirements (together with some future requirements coming within the unfinalized Launch 18). In brief, this could open up machine producers utilizing the modem to many extra satellite tv for pc options.
Samsung unveiled the Exynos 5400 forward of MWC 2024, specializing in 5G developments with out formally clarifying its satellite tv for pc capabilities. The Exynos 5400 will assist the identical Launch 17 NTN requirements, in accordance with Android Authority’s supply, although they did not supply any extra specs or different info to recommend how Samsung’s latest modem might enhance the Pixel 9’s typical wi-fi connectivity. Pixel homeowners have complained about erratic connectivity in latest Pixel telephones, as Android Police famous, and attributed it to the Exynos modems, which Google switched to utilizing within the Pixel 6 to pair with its Tensor chipsets fairly than the Qualcomm modems it had utilized in its prior handsets.
Android Authority’s supply did recommend that the Exynos 5400 can be paired with different units slated to make use of the Tensor G4 past the Pixel 9 — together with the subsequent era of Pixel Fold units in addition to a 5G pill, codenamed “clementine,” which Google is purportedly within the early phases of creating. Presumably, these units will have the ability to join via satellites as properly.
Samsung hasn’t elaborated on any satellite tv for pc connectivity capabilities of the Exynos 5400, although satellite tv for pc community firm Skylo did certify the modem to be used with its satellites shortly after MWC 2024. The yr earlier than, Samsung introduced that it had simulated satellite tv for pc communications utilizing its Exynos 5300 modem and deliberate to include two-way texting in addition to exchanging photos and video over satellite tv for pc into future modems.
Neither Samsung nor Google responded to a request for remark by time of publication.
Whereas final yr might not have been the yr of satellite-to-phone connectivity that I initially anticipated on the outset of 2023, the potential of utilizing satellites to spice up connectivity in distant areas outdoors the vary of cell networks stays promising. For now, Apple retains its benefit and Emergency SOS is one other feather within the iPhone’s cap, nevertheless it’s nonetheless solely usable in an emergency and solely carries textual content. Future connectivity options, just like the as-yet unrealized satellite tv for pc options proposed by Verizon, T-Cellular and AT&T, search to let customers ship multimedia messages and make voice and video calls past cell networks.