According to MacRumors, iPhone users in Japan can now use Apple’s Messages via satellite feature as of today’s announcement. The functionality works on the iPhone 14 or later models and the new Apple Watch Ultra 3, allowing messaging when there’s no cellular or Wi-Fi. Users will get a prompt to connect to the nearest satellite to send and receive iMessages, SMS, emoji, and Tapback reactions. The feature requires iOS 18 or later on iPhone and watchOS 26 or later on the Apple Watch. It joins the existing emergency SOS and Find My location sharing via satellite services already available in Japan. Crucially, Apple continues to offer all satellite connectivity for free on supported devices.
A Logical, But Slow, Expansion
So, Japan gets the full suite. This makes perfect sense when you think about it. The country has vast rural and mountainous regions where cellular coverage is notoriously spotty. It’s a prime market for this tech. But here’s the thing: it also highlights how gradually Apple is rolling this out globally. We’ve had emergency SOS via satellite for a while now, but turning it into a general-purpose messaging pipe is a bigger step. You have to wonder about the capacity and the deals with satellite operators. Can the system handle if thousands of people in the Japanese Alps all decide to text at once? Probably not yet. This feels like a controlled, market-by-market stress test.
The Real Game is Normalization
Look, the emergency feature was a brilliant, life-saving headline grabber. But this? This is about making satellite connectivity feel normal. It’s not just for when you’re bleeding out on a trail; it’s for when you simply want to send a “Running late!” text from a ski lift. That’s a huge psychological shift. Apple is basically baking the expectation of constant connectivity into the hardware, no matter where you are. And by keeping it free—for now—they’re removing the biggest barrier to adoption: cost. The question is, how long can “free” last if usage skyrockets?
privacy-and-the-fine-print”>Privacy and the Fine Print
They’re smart to emphasize the end-to-end encryption carries over. That was non-negotiable. Without it, the feature would be dead on arrival for privacy-conscious users. But I’m still skeptical about the real-world performance. The prompts and the need to point your phone at a satellite suggest it’s still a deliberate, somewhat clunky process. This isn’t seamless background syncing. It’s a fallback, and a slow one at that. And what about those SMS messages? They’re encrypted to the satellite, but then handed off to carriers. The security model there is inherently weaker than iMessage’s. It’s a good step, but let’s not pretend it’s a perfect replacement for a cell tower.
A Quiet Infrastructure Play
At the end of the day, this is Apple building its own parallel, minimalist network. It’s a hedge against terrestrial carriers and a massive value-add for the iPhone in specific markets. For industries that operate off-grid—think field research, forestry, or even industrial monitoring where rugged, reliable communication is critical—this kind of baked-in capability is a game-changer. It turns a consumer phone into a more viable tool for professional work in remote areas. The expansion to Japan is just another tile placed on the board. The strategy is clear: make “always connected” a default Apple promise, and let the carriers sweat.
