Anyone with interest in an InReach Messenger? New phone is going to be sat enabled and I think I’m going to rely on that for backcountry comms instead of the InReach.
$200?
Dang. Just bought one. Have you read up on the sat com capabilities? I’m not convinced.
From what I’ve read, where I’m most likely to be using it (higher alpine) and the cost of Garmin plans, I feel fairly confident in the phone. The thing that swung me on it was This substack by Cody Townsend
Do I have to pay for that or just subscribe?
Just sub, but I’ll drop the article here:
A Paradigm Shift
No single gadget has impacted wilderness travel like the Satellite Messenger.
In the time between the invention of the cell phone and the invention of the sat messenger, when one traveled beyond the reach of cell service, communication to the outside world was relegated to heavy, bulky, and extremely expensive satellite phones or to one-way emergency personal locator beacons. Communication from the wild was reserved for well-funded siege-style expeditions or a one-time SOS message of the “Oh Shit!” variety.
Once the sat messenger (ex. DeLorme/Garmin inReach / Zoleo / ACR Bivy / etc.) was introduced to consumers around the late aughts / early 2010’s, small, lightweight, and affordable devices allowed for rapid SMS-based communication, pinpoint weather forecasts, and live tracking automatically sent to the outside world. To me, it’s one of the biggest revolutions in backcountry safety and has helped democratize successful expeditions to remote corners of the world.
Enter the iPhone 14. Starting in November of 2022, Apple allowed users outside of cellular and Wi-Fi coverage to connect directly to satellites to text emergency services, share medical IDs, and update their location via the Find My app. In September of 2024, Apple expanded that connectivity beyond emergencies to general SMS and iMessage communication.
Satellite communication was changed once again.
The New Paradigm
As a very experienced and satisfied user of both the Garmin inReach and ACR Bivy sat messengers, 2026 was the first winter of my career where I did not have a subscription nor use a dedicated sat messenger. For multiple expeditions and daily backcountry use, I solely relied on the satellite messaging capabilities of an iPhone 17 Max.
My conclusion after this winter is that most backcountry users do not need a dedicated satellite messenger.
But here are 2 reasons to be skeptical about that prior statement.
1. The first is that a dedicated sat messenger does increase a margin of safety. Having a separate device with its own battery, live tracking capabilities, and a more efficient system for sending and receiving messages to the outside world is a true benefit. I also have heard some reports of rescue situations being complicated by faulty GPS points and less reliable satellite connectivity on the iPhone. Personally, some of those reports I’ve read felt exaggerated for personal bias and could easily be mitigated by a tiny bit of in-the-field ingenuity. But overall, a dedicated sat messenger is an extra layer of safety.
2. The in-iPhone satellite capabilities are limited. Not once did I have an issue during the entirety of the winter connecting with a satellite and sending messages out, but the experience can be a bit lackluster at times. While the iPhone satellite UI is incredibly intuitive and graphically beautiful—it guides your phone’s aim directly to satellites—I did often find myself in awkward contorted positions aiming my phone at a passing satellite waiting for a message to send. This direct aim also makes setting down your phone and waiting for messages to come in virtually impossible. In order to send and receive, you actively have to be pointing your phone at satellites, which can be a literal pain in the neck.
With those caveats out of the way, the primary reason I believe most people do not need a full-time dedicated sat messenger anymore is because for emergency rescue scenarios, the iPhone satellite capabilities are enough to facilitate rescue in an emergency. Do you lose the additional level of security of having a device separate from the device you take photos with, navigate with, and consistently take in and out of your pocket as your outside lifeline? Of course. But to be fair, before we had in-phone satellite capabilities, we all traveled with only one level of outside communication security when there was no cell phone service. So this newfangled necessity of having two levels of communication is a concept that has come relatively out of the blue and is in many ways a bit overbearing. Are you entirely reliant on a device with a fragile glass screen, weak battery, and weak antenna? Of course. But to be fair, for normal messaging, most dedicated sat messengers rely on your phone. Additionally phone batteries have gotten way better with temperature sensitivity the past few years, and the antenna is still strong enough that I’ve never not connected to a satellite with my personal iPhone.
In total, the inflexible and expensive data plans that come with dedicated sat messengers aren’t worth it for day-to-day backcountry use when the satellite capabilities of phones are super good enough and have been responsible for communication in many backcountry rescues the past two years.
My last caveat to this synthesis is for multi-night outings and expeditions; an iPhone becomes more limited. On the Norman’s 13 traverse, weight was such a concern that we relied on three iPhones with satellite capabilities for communication. While I didn’t miss the additional few grams of an InReach, my back missed the ease of reception as I twisted and contorted my body in order to point my phone at a satellite moving across the horizon and the slow nature of back-and-forth texting with the family. The phones worked well enough to check in with our loved ones each and every night, but it was sort of a literal pain-in-the-neck. In Alaska, communication to arrange a last-minute self-funded heli-rescue would’ve been really slow and cumbersome had we not brought a Starlink Mini. Granted, a dedicated sat messenger would’ve only made outside communication perhaps 10%-20% more efficient. Still, if you’re on expeditions or multi-night outings, an InReach, Zoleo, or Bivy Stick is a worthwhile investment for the tracking, efficient messaging, and weather forecasts.
Enter a New New Paradigm
Ninety percent of this article was written before I was recommended and tested T-Mobile’s Starlink enabled satellite connectivity service. For ~$10 USD/month, T-Mobile offers an á la carte service much like the built-in iPhone satellite connectivity but based on Starlink satellites, as opposed to the Globalstar network. The Starlink network of satellites is over 300x larger than Globalstar—11k+ satellites in orbit versus 36. This supersized network allows for far more high-speed bandwidth, which enables T-Mobile’s satellite service to send photos, make voice calls through WhatsApp, load OnX Backcountry, stream music through Apple Music, and even post on the bot-fueled propaganda app formerly known as Twitter (to be fair, most social media is propaganda at this point). The connectivity is far faster, more secure, and easier to use than the built-in iPhone satellite service. To me, this $10/month is well worth the price, and its ability to port into most modern phones, even if you’re an AT&T or Verizon subscriber, makes it incredibly easy to use.
In All
- Unless you’re an expedition skier or partaking in many multi-night outings, a dedicated satellite messenger is unwarranted in my opinion.
- The T-Mobile Starlink service is a better alternative to the built-in iPhone satellite service.
- I’m willing to bet we’ll see even more paradigm shifts in the next five years.
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Idk man for $8/month I am still more comfortable carrying my inreach
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That’s pretty good.
Im on a iPhone 13 so it’s a moot point, but I get it. I could see myself doing the T mobile thing when I get a new phone… hopefully in several years.
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I got the iPhone 14 specifically for the satellite messaging, I’ve used it once in the backcountry to see if it worked and it did . I can confirm that pointing it at the satellite was annoying but the messages got out.
My buddy just did PCT and used an iphone with t-mobile satellite. he had an easier time chatting with the people using text than he had with people using inreaches. The frequency of texting was hardly different than when he was in civilization. What seclusion do you even get on the trail now!
In his experience built-in satellite only works when you have no bars, if you have the fake 1 bar it’ll still try to send normally, whereas paid t-mobile satellite just works regardless
Sorry don’t want to hurt your sale. Extra redundancy is useful, there have been cases of people stuck and not being able to access phone while the inreach is, well, in reach
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If I were doing multi-day or bigger objectives in the backcountry I think I’d opt for having a Garmin plus my iPhone.