Qualcomm and Iridium collaborate to introduce Snapdragon Satellite for Android smartphones

What if the emergency satellite connectivity features arrive on your android smartphone? Well, you would be wondering whether it is possible or not.

For sure it is possible. At CES 2023, Qualcomm has come up with the idea of introducing the satellite connectivity feature to Android smartphones.

Previously we witnessed Apple featuring emergency satellite connectivity on its iPhone 14 series. And now Qualcomm has announced its latest project i.e., Snapdragon Satellite. Snapdragon Satellite will function as a two-way messaging service. It will be made available with the next-gen premium Android mobile devices.

Reportedly, Qualcomm has collaborated with Iridium. Iridium is responsible for managing the operations of a constellation based on 66-strong Low Earth orbit satellites. Obviously, the biggest competitor for Iridium is Globalstar. Since Globalstar is the official partner of tech company Apple for satellite services.

According to Qualcomm, its service won’t be restricted to emergency use. Rather it could be used while in remote, offshore, and rural locations. Furthermore, the company shared that the service will provide its support for SMS texting, two-way messaging in case of an emergency, as well as other messaging apps. The feature will be supported on devices based on Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor. In addition to this, the service will initially be introduced in selected regions by the second half of the following year.

One interesting thing to note here is that the Snapdragon Satellite service won’t only be limited to just mobile devices. Instead, it could be accessed across a range of devices like tablets, laptops, IoT products, and cars. In this perspective, app developers and OEMs can come up with unique ideas of providing and extending their services by benefiting from satellite connectivity. Moreover, the 5G Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) will also be supported by Snapdragon Satellite.

According to the information, Qualcomm and Garmin will partner for this project. The vice president of Garmin’s outdoor segment, Brad Trenkle, mentioned that Garmin is ready to utilize this opportunity as a form of spreading out its reach of satellite emergency response services to millions of users around the globe. Each year hundreds and thousands of SOS cases are resolved by Garmin Response.  Given this scenario, Garmin is excited to work in collaboration with Iridium and Qualcomm.