SOS on iPhone Status Bar: What Does It Mean?Īccording to an Apple support document, when SOS or SOS only appears on the status bar, it means that the iPhone isn’t connected to a cellular network.

You will also learn how to get your iPhone out of SOS mode. So what does this mean? What does SOS or SOS only next to the Wi-Fi signal strength indicator mean? In this guide, you will learn what both mean if they appear on your iPhone’s status bar. Not knowing what’s wrong, you soon see SOS or SOS only in the status bar (top-right corner of your iPhone screen). Apple has, however, made it possible to update your location via the Find My network via satellite, so that friends and family can keep track of you when you're out in the wilds.There may be times when you try to make a call or send a text message using your iPhone, but you can’t do so. You can't send it in a quick burst because of the bandwidth limitations.

But because you're connecting to a satellite, the bandwidth is much narrower, limiting what you can do with it.Įssentially, you'll transmit that information to the satellite and it will be relayed back to a ground station and then be passed on to the destination - in this case, to emergency services.Īpple says that this can take anywhere between 15 seconds to a minute to send the information. The phone connects using radio waves, using bands that are likely already supported by terrestrial networks.

Apple is among the first to launch a service, but others have announced similar - such as Huawei in China - and there's plenty of research into using satellites to enable connectivity beyond the reach of terrestrial cell towers. Satellite communication in regular smartphones is a new technology.

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