Google Has Officially Confirmed That Android 14 Will Support The Satellite Communication System. This Operating System Will Be Released Next Year.

SpaceX and carrier T-Mobile announced at a joint event last week that they plan to connect smartphones directly to next-generation Starlink satellites so that users can access SMS and voice messaging services in areas where cellular service is unavailable.

While it is rumored that Apple will unveil a satellite communication system in iPhone 14, now 9to5Google writes that Google has announced that the next version of Android will also be equipped with such a system.

Referring to the difficulty of adding 3G and Wi-Fi to the first Android phone in 2008, Hiroshi Lockheimer, senior vice president of platforms and ecosystems at Google, announced that the Android team members are designing a new version to be compatible with satellites and support satellite communication. It is planned for the “next version of Android.” In a conversation with 9to5Google, Google has confirmed that the next version will be Android 14. This operating system will probably arrive in the middle of 2023.

Google has confirmed that it is helping SpaceX implement its plans. SpaceX said it would send the second generation of Starlink satellites, which have giant antennas, into Earth orbit next year.

Lockheimer says the user experience of phones connecting to satellites will be different from phones that connect to cellular networks.

According to him, it is expected that there will be differences in speed, quality of connection, and even interaction time.

The new SpaceX service offers two to four megabits of bandwidth per cell area. Elon Musk says that thanks to the satellite communication system, one to two thousand simultaneous voice calls or hundreds of thousands of text messages can access in each cell area.

The smartphone satellite communication system is used primarily in emergencies, and T-Mobile says it aims to provide nationwide coverage so that there is no area without access to the communication system. T-Mobile said the Starlink satellite communication service would support SMS, MMS, and a few selected messaging applications.

According to Elon Musk, no additional equipment is needed to connect to the SpaceX satellite communication system, and phones currently available in the market can use the service.

It is said that Apple is looking to use a satellite communication system in the iPhone 14 series phones. These phones will unveil next Wednesday.