Will the new Apple iPhone replace the Garmin inReach?

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The critics were right: of course, we should have gone for the Garmin inReach.

Early last October, after hiking nearly 10,000 miles together without any major incident, my wife, Tina, and I got separated on the Continental Divide Trail. A snowstorm had ripped through southern Colorado's San Juan Mountains, and we'd unwittingly taken different routes on a choose-your-own-adventure trek. For 36 hours, we'd been stalking back and forth, tracing our footprints in the fresh snow, but we couldn't find each other. There was no cell signal, and because we'd grown accustomed to staying relatively in lockstep, neither of us had our Garmin inReach, the rugged, orange, rectangular device that hangs from the front of a backpack to allow backcountry adventurers to communicate with one another.

Instead, I used the relatively basic satellite capabilities of my iPhone to text an SOS message to emergency responders. After some back and forth, the responder let me know that Tina had arrived in town, and I was able to assure the operator that I was mostly safe and on my way. It was the most embarrassing and anxious moment of my two years living outdoors. As Outside readers often say, I should have brought my Garmin.

But just nine months later, Apple may be upending that joke. In a series of announcements at its Worldwide Developers Conference in California on June 10, the company revealed that its upcoming iPhone operating system, iOS 18, will allow satellite-linked users to send text messages to others, as well as emergency services. While the iPhone's current capabilities can tell you which way to go from a high mountain pass or help you find a ride, all of that would be unnecessary if you could just ask Tina where you are (or vice versa), as you can with a Garmin.

With iOS 18 and Garmin inReach, we wouldn't have had to spend a night without a tent in the Colorado cold, dispatch a search and rescue team, or spend an exhausting day off at a hostel in Silverton. Instead, Tina and I would have been able to text each other with a simple satellite link, saving us 36 cold, painful hours and a lot of mental anguish. We would have just met up and headed south.

While the exact details about Apple's new service are still unclear, a source close to the company confirmed some key elements to Outside. When iOS 18 is released (likely this fall), iPhone 14 and later users will be able to send satellite-based iMessage and SMS messages, complete with emojis and inline replies. As I assume, two phones connected only to satellites can send text messages to each other. There are no quotas, so you can send five or 500. And at least for current iPhone 14, 15, or 16 users, the feature will be free until late 2025 (or two years after purchasing a 14 or later if you're buying now). No future pricing plans have been announced. The service won't support RCS messages, calls, or data, although Apple believes it has the satellite capacity to handle this new volume.

The announcement is also something of a satellite race with Android, which last month began letting some beta users know that they, too, could get satellite messaging. But the real competition here isn't between Apple and Android, which will apparently both offer two-way satellite messaging in the coming months anyway. Rather, the question is what will happen to Garmin, Somewear, and similar devices that have enabled satellite communication from remote locations for years without the mainstream cultural cachet that Apple has.

Are these outdoor products destined to become extinct as their specific niches disappear? In the long term, barring any original innovation, maybe. (Garmin recently declined to comment on Apple's iOS 18 announcement.) Still, after the events of October, Tina and I bought a ton of Garmin products. Since then, we've taken them on backcountry skiing and snowshoeing adventures in avalanche zones, and on canyoneering expeditions on the Colorado Plateau. We'll also be taking them on a thru-hike later this year.

In fact, we won't be putting it down anytime soon when iOS 18 is released. Keep in mind that inReach and other SOS devices are built for rugged outdoor travel, whereas iPhones and Androids are not. We've wrecked supposedly waterproof phones wearing rain jackets, broken multiple screens on alpine rocks, and in the desert, the heat temporarily killed our phones, as did the cold in the mountains. The batteries died.

Garmin inReach and its ilk are little rubber-covered bricks that can take being dropped, rained on, and abused. They have long-lasting batteries (it takes a lot of backups to charge an iPhone for 14 days, but an inReach will last you those 14 days). And, perhaps more importantly, they're separate from your phone's battery. As a last line of defense, they're built to last, and likely outlast you. And while Apple's new operating system will only add hiking trails in national parks to your maps, many of these satellite-based devices include native maps, route tracking, and weather, despite the frustrating, un-Apple-like intuitive nature of their own platforms. In other words, they're made for people who are about to lose cell service, not for people who happen to lose it. That's why they'll stick around, even if only for a little while.

The smartphone has become the Swiss Army knife of the digital world, in the woods and in the city. It is a map, a camera, a newspaper, entertainment, a calculator and a compass. But when Karl Elsener patented his officer's and sporting knife in 1897, Swiss soldiers could open corks, open cans of food, pierce leather, cut cloth and much more. At best, the Swiss Army knife was not the best at anything. But it could and still can do a lot, even if it was somewhat inefficient. Instead, it was all in one compact package.

I think the same way about Apple's early attempts to build a comprehensive satellite network in the backcountry. It'll be good enough for most situations, but it may be a bit flimsy and untested when you know conditions might get extreme. The market will probably never be big enough to see a nearly indestructible, ruggedized version of an iPhone or Android that you can take deep into the woods or down a river and not worry about whether it will survive the weather. So, at least for now, I think you should stick with your Garmin.

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