Pixel 9 owners get another free year of the life-saving feature, Satellite SOS

Google has extended the Pixel 9's free access to the Satellite SOS feature, pushing back the date when people would have to start paying for it.

This is great news for owners of Pixel 9 phones, because it means they get another year of a potentially life-saving tool. While Satellite SOS may not be something you've ever had to use, it's one of those tools that isn't really useful up until the moment it's vital. Therefore, getting longer access to it is only a good thing.

Pixel 9 users get another year with Satellite SOS

They were due to start paying this year

debuted with the Pixel 9 range in 2024, and was one of the headline features of that phone series. As you might expect from the name, it's a feature that's only useful in the worst of circumstances. It uses the Pixel 9's ability to communicate with satellites to connect the phone to the emergency services, even in areas without a phone signal.

As such, while it's one of the Pixel's best features, it's also one you're unlikely to have used — though if you have, you're probably very happy it was there.

Pixel owners get two years of free access to Satellite SOS, with paid plans supposedly taking over after that free trial. However, we're all still none the wiser as to what form those paid plans will take, as Google has elected to instead extend the free trial for those devices which were due to run out. Namely, all the Pixel 9 devices.

“Confirming that we’ve extended this offering, at no additional cost, for one additional year. We have no details to share beyond that at this time,” a Google spokesperson told PCMag in a statement.

That means Pixel 9 devices will get a free trial to the service for three years, instead of two. At the moment it's unclear whether Google will do the same for the Pixel 10 next year, or whether it will have set up a paid plan service by then.

I sincerely hope not. Adding a life-saving measure to your phones is great, but adding it and then expecting people to pay for it? Well, that doesn't sit particularly well with me. Just imagining that there could be people out there who might die who could have lived had this service been free is a bit of a nightmare.

This could be part of Google's thinking on this subject. While I'm not going to pretend a corporation is driven by empathy or any sort of human ethics, it would be a terrible look for Google if a story like this did come out. And on the flip side, stories about people being saved by a Pixel feature would be excellent PR for the company.

In short, Google may be looking at whether it's even worth setting up payment for the service, and striking a balance between. Given most people aren't going to pay for a service they don't need often, it seems as if Satellite SOS wouldn't be a money-spinner in any case.

Here's hoping this free year is everything Google needs to decide to just leave the service free to all, for good.