I've got a Garmin Inreach that I keep on subscription for $16 a month for sending perhaps two dozen messages a year. Almost exclusively messages that say I've landed safely, or am departing with an ETA and route. Is anyone using Apple's satellite messaging service on new Iphones? Can it reliably replace the Inreach? I don't use the breadcrumb features of Inreach.

IMO - for casual and occasional messaging, I think the clear path forward is messaging on the iPhone. I still carry both but my inReach is starting to feel unecessary. iPhone messaging might not be perfect, it's a little slower, and battery life is a concern, but unless you need the rugged device, worldwide coverage, and extra functionality of the inReach it's hard not to see the convenience and utility of iPhone messaging.

My wife purchased the inreach for me a couple years ago.

She loves to track me on my flights and know when I've landed

I get the extra insurance for my wife and I. I also like that I can easily notify rescuers if it goes bad.

Last week I was in the sierras using the satellite feature on my iPhone and it's pretty cool but I was getting sporadic service, which is probably due to me

At the end of the day, I like all the inreach features. I keep it right next to me when I fly, hike, go fishing on the ocean, dirt bike and/or mountain bike. If I'm going to crash the plane I also plan to activate the inreach before the crash.

Cheers

I've got the supplemental insurance as well. My wife doesn't track my flights, but expects that she will be notified promptly on arrival and departure. If I don't message, the best case scenario is (appropriately) an earful. As such, the messages aren't casual, but are occasional. I also fly with an EPIRB, so in the worst case I've got a solution.

The Inreach is just one more thing to keep charged and handy, and one more subscription. It works every time, which is the most redeeming value. If the Apple solution is flaky, it isn't a viable solution for me.

T-Mobile’s partnership with Space-X will likely render the sat messengers obsolete at some point, not yet but probably soon. Currently, the main advantage of the Inreach is the breadcrumbs feature. I’ve been on t-mobile/spaceX for around 3-4 months now in their beta trial. It works very well. I was real time texting back and forth with my son as he flew a super cub from Merrill to his lodge on the peninsula. It was transparent to me, it was if he was downstairs (cause they seem to think texting in the house is cool…)

I think it depends on what you are using it for. We currently have severel Inreaches (Both regular & mini) for the guide service and I keep a mini in the plane and also hang one on my pack if I am hunting. I also got a new phone over the winter that has the sattelite option. The tracking feature, ruggedness and battery life of the Inreach are currently their strong points. I can go to our tent camp hunting for several days and not have to worry about charging the Inreach, where the phone, even with careful use is two days at best. Same thing with the airplane. Turn it on when I fire up, turn on the tracking and turn it off when I am done. It will last for a bunch of flights. The sattelite text feature on the phone works well, if there is no service, but where there is sketchy service, not so much. I was camped with a group earlier in the year at a site that had an intermittent one bar of service. I am sure I am missing something (Boomers and cell phones...), but I couldn't get a text out on the phone (Not an emergency, just seeing what would or wouldn't work). It kept switching from sattelite to cell everytime a signal would get through for even a few seconds and I couldn't figure out how to keep it on the sattelite. Even though it showed intermitent service there wasn't enough to send a text. With that said I have had zero issues where there was no cell service. Personnnaly I think if you are just ramming around for a day trip or maybe a overnight and don't need a tracking feature, the days of the messenger are limited. If you need something for multiple days that's also pretty rugged and you want to lay down some bread crumbs, they are still the best option. We still send a Inreach out on all of our guided trips even if the guide(s) have phones with sattelite capability in case theirs don't work, or if that person becomes incapacitated and someone else needs to get a message out. It will be interesting to see how this technology evolves over the next few years.

Pete

I ran into an issue on my Samsung S25 last week regarding this. I was at Meadow Creek and when I tried to send a message the phone wouldn't connect to the satellites because it said I was in Canada and apparently satellite messaging isn't legal there. The message on the phone said that when I got to a place where it was then it would connect. However a few weeks before that I did send a message from Meadow Creek. For the time being satellite messaging from your phone is in the very early stages and is essentially just a toy right now.

Bonanza Man wrote:I ran into an issue on my Samsung S25 last week regarding this. I was at Meadow Creek and when I tried to send a message the phone wouldn't connect to the satellites because it said I was in Canada and apparently satellite messaging isn't legal there. The message on the phone said that when I got to a place where it was then it would connect. However a few weeks before that I did send a message from Meadow Creek. For the time being satellite messaging from your phone is in the very early stages and is essentially just a toy right now.

This is very interesting, as I am Canadian and am beta testing the satellite texting. It seems to work ok. Definitely legal.

Oddly enough, right after posting about this last week, I forgot my InReach this weekend. Messaged my wife from several back country strips letting her know I had safely landed at each and never had a problem. Maximum send time was maybe 15-20seconds and I received responses promptly.

I'll still be taking my InReach Mini along, but I'm now considering it a backup device.

Was thinking about this while I was out with my son on his first sheep hunt these past few days. I used both devices, and both worked well. For the time being, though, I'm keeping my inReach. The primary reason is in event of an emergency. I explained to my son very clearly how to unlock the inReach and hit the SOS button in the case of an emergency. Done. That's it. If he hits that button, a helicopter is likely on the way. With the iPhone, he'd have to point the phone at the satellite and wait for it to connect. At times that has taken at least 7-8 minutes. That sounds minor, but if a kid is looking at his injured father and is stressed beyond belief, hitting a red button once is a heck of a lot easier to pull off than a multi-step process that might take several minutes.

I like the new iPhone feature, but not well enough to drop the inReach. Yet.

Brian M wrote: I explained to my son very clearly how to unlock the inReach and hit the SOS button in the case of an emergency. Done. That's it.

That can be it but it's tremendously better if he is taught to use the phone app because the inReach folks will text you back within 1-2 minutes asking you the nature of your emergency. He can tell them and now you know the helicopter is coming with the proper response.

Thanks folks for providing these data points. At the moment, I'm off flying duty, but these advances in technology are happening fast, so it's great that you folks are the beta testers, at least on this forum.

Has anyone subscribed with TMobile for the $10 a month satellite phone add on to your iPhone for regular phone service? If that actually works, there's going to be a lot of pilots transferring to T Mobile.../

My phone is on Verizon and I didn't have to subscribe to anything to use it, I think I saw somewhere that the first two years of the service are free.

There’s a difference between apple satellite messaging on newer iPhones (14 or later?) and T-Mobile’s partnership with space-X. The apple messaging uses a different sat network and is limited to basic texting, and, it’s only on the iPhone. The t-mobile/space-x network is Starlink and can be used with any compatible device. Additionally, you will eventually be able to make voice calls and data. I switched to T-mobile for this reason. So far so good. If you’re with another cellphone carrier, T-mobile is saying that you can still use the space-X product with a monthly subscription to t-mobile. I recall they were thinking $10-15 a month. Again, these are two different products and associated capabilities. I think the T-mobile/space-X version might make the Inreach obsolete relatively soon.

I've used iPhone satellite texting several times this year on backpacking trips. Worked great for simple texting. I brought my Zoleo but didn't turn it on.

In the airplane I also carry an ACR ResQLink.

I have been carrying an InReach Mini with me for all motorcycle trips, kayak trips, and when flying. The satellite messaging on my iPhone is a form of redundancy, but in my experience, it isn't nearly as fast or reliable as the Garmin. Happy to have both.

I admit I haven't tried _very_ hard but I have been unsuccessful at sending even the most basic of messages with my brand new apple iPhone 16 via satellite. I've tried maybe 10 different times, all with clear views of the sky - albeit usually while moving at 250 knots and 21,000'. A few times on the ground in the middle of nowhere. I still carry my inReach for now.

I waited too long to buy an InReach, now with satcomms via iPhone it's off the list. I find it odd more of you don't do breadcrumb tracking for SAR considerations, I still use a SPOT at 2 min tracking for that alone. If I had an inReach I'd still use it for the tracking. Everything I fly for work or pleasure has tracking. Wish ADSB was more reliable down low in the mountains to replace an extra box for tracking.

Sat messaging on the iPhone works reliably enough, both in and out. Probably more reliable than my ELT. The auto "I've crashed" message via satellite sure seems to be doing the bulk of SAR notifications these days (instead of ELT).

Can someone far more tech savvy than I walk me thru how this works, maybe some screen shot. I have an older iPhone 14 will it have this feature ?

14 should work. You can send location through "Find My", or a text message through iMessage. As someone already posted, you cannot be receiving any wifi of cellular signal.

I haven't tried it flying, but on the ground your phone will ask if you want satellite and start directing you where to point in the sky in order to get two-way with a satellite.