Verizon’s free satellite messaging service is now available

Verizon’s previously announced satellite messaging service is now available to owners of some Android smartphones, the company said in a statement today. It comes at no extra charge to Verizon customers, though you’ll need a Google Pixel 9 or Samsung Galaxy S25 series phone to take advantage of it. The service allows people to send and receive text messages via satellite when they’re outside cellular range. Recipients can be on any network or device.

The new feature is distinct from the satellite SOS features built into recent iPhones and the Pixel 9.

Texting via satellite is all the rage right now. Apple added non-emergency messages by satellite to recent iPhones with iOS 18. T-Mobile just introduced its Starlink-enabled satellite messaging service, which anyone can try out regardless of their primary carrier. That service is free for now, but T-Mobile will charge a monthly fee when it goes fully live this summer. Both AT&T and Verizon have been working on additional connectivity with AST SpaceMobile to make video calls and send multimedia via satellite. If it all pans out, dead zones could be a lot less dead in the near future.

Verizon is rolling out necessary upgrades to enable the service starting today and “will continue over the next two weeks,” according to today’s release. Guess the race to 5G has turned into more of a space race these days.