Colorado’s mountain towns are receiving wave of unfounded texts for help from satellite-enabled iPhones

[Pivo]

The text landed at Grand County’s 911 dispatch center Friday afternoon.

“Trapped by fire” it read, pinging a location near the remote Meadow Creek Reservoir.

The 911 text from an Apple iPhone came through the company’s new satellite technology, which enables users out of cellphone range to use passing satellites to send text messages.


https://coloradosun.com/2025/07/23/colo ... s-iphones/

[Alston_Neal]

So I guess I'm more obtuse than normal, but did I miss the how part?

[Pivo]

@Alston_Neal
They don't know. Here's another article about delays in the system. It may be possibly best to contact your 'backup' person too.
https://www.durangoherald.com/articles/ ... icleButton

[Jim]

Looks like they broke some more stuff while moving fast.

[xsproutx]

Bias statement: I used to be an engineer who worked for Garmin

I don't particularly like how Garmin has done various things in the space and how they completely neglected their InReach division for so long (weird how a competitor comes out with something cheaper, lighter, and better and they suddenly start adding features, eh?). One of the things that I think IS done well is how they handle the communications in these scenarios. It's not a message to 911 directly like Apple does, basically (bit more to it but let's keep it simple). There is a middle-man (which they now own which is funny because the previously mentioned competitor uses that same company). This helps weed out stuff like this that will ultimately end up with people dying because of the whole "boy who cried wolf" effect. Apple had the same issue when they rolled out the feature with the apple watch that would alert emergency officials in the event of a "fall" or similar but instead of funding a middle-man, they passed the buck to us taxpayers. Is there an argument that this CAN lead to faster results? Probably. Is there an argument that says they just didn't want to actually worry about the problem and spend money on it but advertise they can take care of the problem? Seems more likely.

Great ideas but clearly need refinement. With that said, I'm not completely sold that people weren't just trying to test out the SOS capability and didn't realize they were doing a "real" one, though. People are kind of stupid and it only takes a few to make an impact. I do like the phrasing of "single person ON fire" though. Like, pretty sure if you're actively on fire, SAR isn't going to get there in time.

[CannondaleKid]

I do like the phrasing of "single person ON fire" though. Like, pretty sure if you're actively on fire, SAR isn't going to get there in time.

Agreed... and the same goes for 'three people on fire'.

[Nighthiker]

When we started 911 we would get a "test 911 call". When the 911 operator realized it was not an emergency call they would just hang up resulting in the person calling back.