Android 15 will support satellite connectivity

Android 15 is currently in early testing. Google just released the second Developer Preview of Android 15 for eligible Pixel phones. While it's still in early testing (not even a beta yet), it looks like this will be a much larger release than expected, which comes with one feature at a time. Long awaited: Satellite connection support.

The Android user community has been waiting for satellite connection support since the time this feature was first introduced by Apple on the iPhone 14. Now after nearly two years, the market will begin to receive the phone models. Android smart phones with satellite connectivity from early next year or even later this year. The ability to support satellite connectivity at the operating system level is the first step that developers like Apple or Google need to take to make this feature more popular, thereby bringing many practical benefits. for users, such as sending and receiving text messages via satellite in an emergency situation

Qualcomm has been trying to develop a proprietary solution for satellite connectivity on the Snapdragon chip, but so far it hasn't gone anywhere. That is, theoretically, high-end Snapdragon processors are still capable of satellite connectivity, but it is unclear whether Qualcomm's solution is well compatible with the functionality in Android 15.

In addition to satellite connectivity, some other notable additions in this release include improvements to the way NFC works, as well as improvements to the way PDF files are read. Most of the changes in the release are aimed at developers. However, with the addition of satellite support, it seems like Google is slowly but steadily adding more and more customer-facing features.

It's also important to note that this is only the second developer preview. The first "beta" release comes out next month, and Android typically reaches "platform stable" (feature complete) by June. So we're likely to have more to come. See many other exciting changes as new previews and betas are released throughout the next three months.

Kareem Winters

Update 24 March 2024