It's the battery life that will keep InReach relevant (unfortunately). I don't know of a phone that will last a week+ on a charge.

So they accepted me I’m on the beta. Won’t be on a trip for a bit but will try it out.
A few more things I have learned.

Need to be on a newer device. iPhone 13 or newer or a newer Samsung etc.

If you are a Rogers customer and on an Ultimate plan it will be included in the plan after the beta at no additional cost.
If you need to pay for it …$10/mth for the first 12 months 15/mth after that.

You will be able to cancel and re-add the feature at anytime if you are paying for it.

I looked at the coverage map. All of APP is covered. Plan on hiking the Pukaskwa Coastal trail in Sept .. it is all covered. Most places in Ontario even further North look covered. Wabakimi , Woodland Caribou etc all covered.

I think it’s just texting no data for now. . So looking at your weather network app won’t work. You would need someone to send you a forecast for the area you are in.
“ the service will expand to picture messaging, data, and even voice calls down the road.”

I will add part of me isn’t happy for its arrival. I like the disconnect but as someone who has had emergencies in the backcountry and have family members with health issues the pros out weigh the cons.

Can we all agree now to treat it like a movie theatre though ? All phones on silent mode please. 🙏

Last edited by ShawnD (7/22/2025 10:45 am)

IanTendy wrote:

scratchypants wrote:

It's the battery life that will keep InReach relevant (unfortunately). I don't know of a phone that will last a week+ on a charge.

I dunno, I can get 7-8 days with minimal usage out of mine.  I can also get a lot of power banks or solar for the cost of just 1 season of inReach.  Plus a phone affords the luxury of weather updates and any alerts we may need.

I've been waiting on this over Garmin or a PLB for years, glad to see it's finally coming.

I can get 3 days, tops if i don't use anything. If intended use is similar to InReach - providing route updates - that's going to cost some power. And battery banks aren't light. Don't get me wrong - I love the idea, I'm just speculating on practicality. The InReach is a tough little nugget of a device. I trust it as part of an overall safety plan. My cell phone does not meet my requirements in a back country situation. Now if a hardened, mission-specific mobile device were available...

I confirm that I was able to successfully send and receive satellite text messages using my iPhone when I was on the Nipissing River a couple weeks ago. If it works again on my next trip, I will likely cancel my inReach Mini 2 subscription and sell that device.

So my experience with the iPhone satellite has been very poor. I was in Killarney two weeks ago and it did not work all (bell lake loop).   I just returned from an Algonquin trip (out of kiosk to manitou, biggar, north Sylvia, maple and back to the van at kiosk). It was spotty. Would pretty much consistently send my location to my dad and kids who were following me, but messaging was extremely hit and miss. I would sit in the evening multiple times with my phone supposedly “connected” for 15-20 minutes trying to send a message and have no luck. Then the next morning I would try to send a message and it would send almost immediately. Responses were also spotty with some coming instantly, some later the same day and a handful arriving when I got back into cell phone range. Basically it was exactly what the old saying says….you get what you pay for. It’s free and I can’t complain because of that, but I wouldn’t trust it.

Jdbonney wrote:

So my experience with the iPhone satellite has been very poor. I was in Killarney two weeks ago and it did not work all (bell lake loop). I just returned from an Algonquin trip (out of kiosk to manitou, biggar, north Sylvia, maple and back to the van at kiosk). It was spotty. Would pretty much consistently send my location to my dad and kids who were following me, but messaging was extremely hit and miss. I would sit in the evening multiple times with my phone supposedly “connected” for 15-20 minutes trying to send a message and have no luck. Then the next morning I would try to send a message and it would send almost immediately. Responses were also spotty with some coming instantly, some later the same day and a handful arriving when I got back into cell phone range. Basically it was exactly what the old saying says….you get what you pay for. It’s free and I can’t complain because of that, but I wouldn’t trust it.

Interesting - I used it again on my most recent trip to Fraser Lake a couple weeks ago and found that it worked seamlessly again. In fact, it connected to the satellite and sent messages faster than my inReach Mini 2. Also, the fact that the iPhone directs you where to turn/point the phone to achieve the strongest satellite connection was very useful compared to the Garmin, which requires the antenna to point to the sky in hopes of connecting to the satellite that passes over approximately every 10 minutes.

After two successful trips using it, I went ahead and cancelled the Garmin subscription and will be using the iPhone satellite messaging going forward. This was a no brainer for me, especially considering the price increases for the Garmin subscriptions in recent years.