Top pick
This satellite communicator is small, has the best app, and provides everything you need to communicate or call for help. It isn’t easy to use without a phone, however.
The Garmin inReach Messenger is the best satellite messenger thanks to its usability, compact size, and solid app — all of which it offers for a relatively reasonable cost.
It’s easy to set up. After powering up, the inReach Messenger shows you a QR code to download the Garmin Messenger app, which guides you through a simple setup process that consists of pairing your phone, choosing a plan, adding contacts, and tweaking granular settings such as location sharing.
It has the best app. In addition to its simple setup, Garmin’s Messenger phone app is easy to navigate, with three bottom tabs for messages, weather, and device settings. While you’re messaging, the app also shows you when a message is in transit and whether it’s been delivered successfully.
It’s also fully functional without the app. If you don’t have your phone (or don’t want to bring one), everything still works, but using the device is much more tedious. It isn’t designed for composing messages, but the rest of its menu system is fairly easy to navigate. You can draft a set of custom messages in Garmin’s app and then sync them to the device for quicker texting without a phone.
You can share just the information you want. You can include your coordinates in each message and even add a link to a map of where you are. Garmin also offers MapShare, which allows you to share your location on an interval of your choosing with loved ones on a private map, though depending on your plan, this feature might cost extra. You can also change these settings, if you prefer not to share your location.
It provides good notifications and status indicators. The inReach Messenger chirps when it successfully sends or receives a message or gets a weather report. In the app, you can also see whether a message is in progress and when it successfully transmitted (or failed). Knowing these things is helpful in difficult situations.
It’s small and easy to pack. The inReach Messenger is about the size of an iPhone folded in half (and unlike the Garmin inReach Mini 2, it doesn’t have an antenna sticking out). It can easily slide into a bag or fanny pack. It fit into my pants pockets, but it might be too thick for some.
It can serve as a power bank. In most cases, it’s probably not ideal to use an emergency device this way, but the Garmin inReach Messenger’s USB-C port can charge other devices.
Garmin’s plans are the most flexible and transparent in this category (which isn’t saying much). Parsing satellite-messenger subscription plans reminded me a lot of the bad old days of intentionally complex cell phone contracts — lots of asterisks, exceptions, and up-front commitments. Garmin’s subscription page is fairly transparent, with a chart that helps you see the details. It isn’t perfect, but I found choosing a plan much easier with Garmin than with its competitors, Spot and ACR.
It’s rated to be water-resistant (but not dust-tight). The inReach Messenger has an Ingress Protection rating (a scale that measures how resistant a device is to water and dust) of IPX7. This means that the device can withstand getting wet for up to 30 minutes but not being continuously underwater. At that level of water resistance, it should survive any storms or accidental creek drops, but we wouldn’t take this device swimming. Also, unlike the Spot X, it is not rated to be dustproof.
You can purchase search-and-rescue insurance. Each satellite messenger I tested offered some form of this insurance; Garmin offers three tiers of search-and-rescue insurance based on how high-risk your activities are. Generally, they are fairly affordable, starting at $40 per year at this writing. Depending on where you are in the world, if you are rescued and don’t have insurance, you may have to pay for the services.
It updates its firmware wirelessly. This is a small thing, but not having to plug your device into a computer to update its firmware is a nice touch that non-Garmin messengers don’t offer. The inReach Messenger lets you know when a software update is available and gives you the option to accept or decline.
Garmin allows you to view, export, and delete your data. If you value your digital privacy (and you should), these policies should give you some piece of mind. However, if you decide to deactivate your plan and device, know that Garmin will keep your data for two years.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
- Composing texts on the device is slow and tedious. You have to use arrows to cycle through and select one letter at a time.
- The plans cost more than others. Garmin’s devices and plans are slightly more expensive than those of its competitors, such as Spot. This is especially true if you want an unlimited plan — Garmin’s costs about $100 per year more than Spot’s, at this writing.
- Garmin doesn’t allow you to suspend your plan for free. You must either cancel the plan and then reactivate it (which involves paying another activation fee) or downgrade to the lowest-cost monthly tier, called Enabled, which allows for unlimited SOS functionality but makes everything else pay-as-you-go according to the à la carte rates.
- It doesn’t come with a loop or hardware to attach it to your clothing or equipment. (Garmin’s inReach Mini 2 comes with a carabiner.) In certain cases, this makes it harder to reach — say, if you’re physically unable to dig into a pocket or your pack.
