Man attaches phone to drone, calls for help

I wish I was that smart and resourceful.

Creative thinking, but how many carry a drone around with them?
Also HOW? Did he know he was getting reception???

and how did he initiate the call if the phone was attached to the drone.

Sounds like urban myth (i.e. BS) to me.

Text was pending until a connection to the cell site was made.

That's what I was thinking too.

My phone tries to send for little while if it doesn't get a signal at first. (Edit: Also, just remembered that my text program allows me to schedule text send time by long-pressing on the send arrow. I've never used that feature, but maybe that's how he timed the send.)

As for how he knew the text was sent, my phone gives me a checkmark for when the text is sent and one when the text is delivered. Also, if he let the phone-drone fly long enough, he could have received a response from his wife.

Curious to hear more details.

but all he really did was attach it to the drone and get it high enough in the air to to get a direct line of site to a cell tower. Many times when traveling in mountainous areas if you get to high ground your cell phone will work while in a valley it won't. If you don't have a drone it just means you got a long walk up a steep hill.

Is a drone cheaper and easier to carry than a sat phone?

cost of sat phone plus monthly subscription vs $500. to $1000. for a drone == probably more cost effective and more fun than a sat phone.

https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/iphone-satellite-texting-li...

iPhone 14 now, and some Androids in the future. Only text, but a great feature.

I don't see how this worked..

I live above the cell towers and the only way I get phone service is from the internet.

No internet, no phone. Unless I get below the cell towers.

I'd like to know more about the message indicating receipt of a message. To my knowledge I don't have that available. I do get a timestamp when my sent message message arrives in the system.

The original service level agreement for GSM (what most of us have used for cell communication) texts included a maximum of 72 hours when the customer phone was availalbe to the system (IIRC).

I jump to the conclusion (without facts) that the antennas in cell towers are designed to radiate downwards where they expect people to be.

For Android: (from https://screenrant.com/android-text-messages-single-double-c...)

"A single check mark means the message has been sent to the recipient. Two check marks, on the other hand, means the message has been delivered. Read messages also display two check marks, but unlike the check marks for delivered messages that are housed in white or empty circles, these are housed in colored circles. If a user sees a stopwatch icon, it means the message is still being sent."

The read receipt function can be disabled by the recipient, so that may be why most messages don't get that receipt.

iOS has its own indicators.

@Scott

Is this with standard sms messaging or RCS messaging (which I believe is different entirely from the imessaging platform).

I use google voice as my primary number and sms/mms platform. No check marks of any kind for received or not received messages of any kind.

The only indication is sent or not sent.

If unable to send, the system will keep trying to send until a data signal is present.

According to Google, no for SMS/MMS. Only for RCS.

https://support.google.com/messages/answer/9487020#zippy=%2C...

Thanks for the link. THe app keeps telling me to upgrade. No thanks.

Plausible deniability.

I hear you about the plausible deniability.

You can turn off read receipts on your app, so that way you'll still see when texts are sent and received. You'll also get to see if others open your text if they enabled read receipts on their phone, but they won't be able to see if you've read their text.

That's what I've done with my phone. All the benefits without sacrificing my own privacy.

Many thanks! Now I know what RCS is! I never chose to use chat inferring that it requires synchronicity.

My scale for what interrupts others from more to less:
___phone call
___RCS chat
___SMS text
___e-mail

The big advantage of chat over a phone call is the message trail.

Recall earlier I mentioned I use gv as my primary number. There is no benefit in this use case scenario as the carrier number is just the middleman. Occasionally I'll run into an entity (like synchrony bank - what a POS) that refuses to use my number for 2FA. Then I have to give out the carrier number. IIRC there's one other bank I had to do that with but can't recall who. Also, fwiw, synchrony still declined my carrier number because it wasn't in my name. I'm part of a cricket group plan and number is in the admin's name.

Have you tried using rcs on a desktop browser? How well does that work?

Nope, never even thought of it.

From what I just read, it seems interesting.

https://www.engadget.com/2020-02-17-rcs-windows-10-your-phon...

https://www.engadget.com/2018-06-18-android-messages-browser...

Found a short video on YouTube that provides some info.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ums58MojaFY