Credit: Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
- In light of Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, SpaceX has enabled satellite-based texting service for T-Mobile users for free in affected regions.
- The service works best outdoors, but you can try to get it working near a window.
- Satellite-based texting will allow users to send texts to their loved ones even if the conventional cell network goes down.
T-Mobile users in regions affected by Hurricane Helene and the soon-to-landfall Hurricane Milton have some small relief coming their way. SpaceX has announced that it has enabled satellite-based basic texting service for T-Mobile users in hurricane-affected users through its Starlink satellites, allowing them to text loved ones for free.
When a T-Mobile phone connects to a Starlink satellite instead of the regular network tower, it will have one to two bars of signal and show “T-Mobile SpaceX” in the network name. Once you see this, you will be able to send texts, though the announcement makes it clear that this is being offered on a best-effort basis. If your messages don’t go through, you can manually retry sending them.