TL;DR
- Shortly after the launch event, Qualcomm published a press release confirming that the S25 series supports satellite connectivity.
- However, it looks like Samsung hasn’t figured out the regions where it wants to release the feature.
The Korean tech giant Samsung recently held its first Galaxy Unpacked in 2025. At the event, the company revealed the Galaxy S25 series and teased the Galaxy S25 Edge (the slimmest phone of all the models in the lineup). While the company talked about the new Galaxy AI features coming to the S25 series, it skipped one of the most notable features of the latest flagships: satellite connectivity.
Also Read: Should You Buy the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Now or Wait for Galaxy S25 Edge?
Qualcomm Spills The Beans On Galaxy S25’s Satellite Connectivity
Shortly after the launch event, Qualcomm published a press release, mentioning that the “S25 series are the first commercial devices to feature Snapdragon Satellite which allows consumers to send and receive messages via satellite (narrowband NTN) natively supported in Android OS.” This is a huge deal, but Samsung isn’t advertising the feature (yet).
The Galaxy S25 Is The Second Android Lineup That Supports Satellite Connectivity
To give you some perspective, it was Apple that introduced satellite connectivity on the iPhone 14 series. The Cupertino-based tech giant has partnered with the satellite communications company called Globalstar. In 2024, Google added the satellite connectivity feature to its flagship Pixel 9 series in association with the California-based non-terrestrial network service provider Skylo.
By that order, the Galaxy S25 is the second Android lineup (after Pixel 9) to support satellite connectivity. The Snapdragon X80 5G modem on the smartphones supports satellite connectivity via narrowband signals.
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Why Isn’t Samsung Talking About Satellite Connectivity On The S25 Sieres Yet?
However, it looks like Samsung hasn’t figured out the regions where it wants to release the feature (which entails partnering with satellite communication providers), and that’s the reason why the feature isn’t active on any of the Galaxy S25 handsets.
We speculate that Samsung will enable the satellite connectivity feature (for emergency purposes) via a software update in the future. Given that the Snapdragon 8 Elite supports the feature, we also believe that other flagships with the chipset could also support the feature (but only if the OEM decides to enable it).
Also Read: Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Hands-On Review: What’s New?
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