Android 14 will get direct satellite connectivity to smartphones

Tech giant Google said the upcoming Android 14 "will help our partners enable all of this" after SpaceX and T-Mobile revealed plans to bring direct satellite connectivity to smartphones.

On Twitter, Hiroshi Lockheimer, Google's senior vice president of Platforms and Ecosystems, described how "it was difficult to get 3G + Wi-Fi to work" on the first Android phone (HTC Dream/T-Mobile G1) in 2008, 9To5Google reports.

"Wild to think about user experiences for phones that can connect to satellites. When we launched G1 in '08, it was a stretch to get 3G + Wifi working," Lockheimer tweeted.

"Now we are designing for satellites. Cool! Excited to support our partners in enabling all of this in the next version of Android."

The Android team is now "designing for satellites", and this support is planned for the "next version of Android", which the tech giant has confirmed as Android 14.

The operating system's release is likely to come in mid-to-late 2023, according to the report. According to Lockheimer, compared to standard LTE and 5G connections, "user experiences of phones that can connect to satellites" will be different.

According to the report, satellite connectivity in phones is primarily aimed at emergency situations and getting rid of cellular dead zones.