Video chat from space? The T-Mobile service expands what applications can do via satellite

when T-Mobile I took T-Satellite Service Live during the summer, has disturbed the ability of developers to adapt their applications to work within the limits of the strict data required on satellite communications. After that, many applications managed to jump on the gun and start working with the STARLONK service when launching Pixel 10 Pro and iPhone 17. Now T-Satellite is open to any application that has been formed to work with the network-with some surprises that I did not think we’ve seen early.

Get ready to chat with video with your friends from the center of anywhere … or prepare to fall by your friends who want to chat in the video, regardless of where you are.

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T-SATELELite breaks some of the lands close to the land

T-Mobile is not the first smartphone connection company to a Satial network. recently iphoneand Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel Modes equipped with appropriate devices can speak to satellites when they are outside the cellular range to Access to emergency servicesand Text using the messaging application and Send a site via Find My. But those that are primarily dependent on sending short bursts of data, which is necessary when communicating with a line of view with satellites that are thousands of miles away and are limited to their frequency range capabilities.

T-SATLLITE reaches a network of 657 Starlink Satellite dedicated to cellular service using a scope of the cellular spectrum that works with most phones that have been conducted during the past four years, according to T-Mobile. The company also provided the service to other service providers customers For $ 10 a month. It shares the same established restrictions about the text as other companies, with the additional ability to send and receive images using a multimedia messaging service.

With today’s announcement, T-Mobile puts some of these restrictions aside. In WhatsApp application, for example, you can send texts, photos, audio notes and video messages, which are still suitable (barely?) Within the internal transmission form. WhatsApp now also supports direct voice and video conversations to other people who use WhatsApp, but you cannot use it to make phone calls, calls or emergency texts.

Another example is the X (previously Twitter), which allows you to pass the summary and post text, images, animation, or videos. It also has the option to download high -resolution media when you need more details.

Run access to app data

According to Ceff Giard, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at T-Mobile, access to this point was largely due to customer notes during the long beta-l-l-satellite while the Starlink constellation was still completed. “We started to see (customer notes) begin to switch to” hey, this is great, “he said. I want more.

Giard said that T-Satellite depends on the LTE cell standard, as sending video and high-resolution video images has become a matter of maximizing the use of the spectrum and improving data transmission better.

During the beta period, there was some initial confusion about the network capabilities. He said: “Oh my God, I get the wide range on my phone now,” (some customers believe) and this is not in fact the case. “This is a completely separate constellation of satellites dedicated to … Work on your phone.”

They also attributed the new capabilities to the Apple and Google work at the operating system level, while emphasizing that developers can link the current application program facades, or application programming facades, to make their applications work with T-Satellite.

More importantly, Giard said that T-Mobile does not impose any data caps or strangling the network for T-Satellite customers who benefit from the service. He said: “I do not want to get anything from the table at this stage, but what we launch now (today) does not contain a data cover.”

In addition to compact applications such as Apple Maps, Google Maps, Apple Music and Samsung Weather Added in SeptemberT-Mobile has announced the following list of applications that work with T-Satellite: T-Lifeand Alltrailsand Accuweatherand Caltopo and Onx (In addition to X and WhatsApp).

Regarding the applications that are then improved for T-Satellite, Giard says it is looking forward to what developers and customers start to request. “Our driving logo here … What do we do next? What is the pain point that we solve?” He said. The next applications “will be the ones that customers will tell us that they really want, (another) are adopted organically along the way.”