Messenger Plus question

Since the Messenger Plus is able to send pictures and voice clips, what are the details for this? What resolution, data limits, etc? How long will it take to send photos? I am guessing it will take a while unless the speed has been increased?

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Garmin-Chris over 1 year ago +1 verified

The image quality is based off the camera on your phone. Images or voice memos are treated the same as other inReach messages. How Long it Takes to Send or Receive inReach Messages

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0 twolpert over 1 year ago

I would guess that the larger messages go via WiFi or cellular data when available. i do not see anything, in any of the documentation or KB articles, which addresses these questions.

I don't know if opening a support ticket would help or not.

+1 Garmin-Chris over 1 year ago

The image quality is based off the camera on your phone. Images or voice memos are treated the same as other inReach messages. How Long it Takes to Send or Receive inReach Messages

0 JungleJim over 1 year ago

Based on info from Iridium, the maximum bandwidth that Iridium can provide is 704kbps (Iridium Certus 700). So it could be a valid assumption that the Messenger Plus is using this Iridium Certus platform. But this is all speculation of course, and it is very well possible that it actually uses lower bandwidth classes as Iridium Certus provides different service levels.

0 1439062 over 1 year ago in reply to Garmin-Chris

Thanks! As a side note, what is the data transfer speed that in-reach uses? I would think there would be some sort of data limit for pictures considering most new phones are taking pictures that are megabytes in size.

0 twolpert over 1 year ago

This guy does not HAVE the device. But he does appear to have good info from Garmin. He says Garmin says 1 minute to send a photo or a 30-second voice message via satellite. If I understood him correctly, he seems to say that the transmission via satellite is highly compressed (which likely means limited resolution) - but that "full resolution" becomes available after you return to cell/Wi-Fi coverage.

Note that you can only see/hear this stuff in the Messenger App.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjnEpvXBk9E

0 JungleJim over 1 year ago in reply to 1439062

inReach uses the Iridium satellite network, so it will use one of the bandwidth classes provided by the Iridium satellite network. But Garmin does not make any details on this available (as far as I know), so everything is speculation. Haven't used the Messenger Plus myself yet, but it could very well be that the image being sent is scaled down to reduce the amount of data that needs to be transferred.

0 1439062 over 1 year ago in reply to twolpert

Thanks for sharing this - searching about the protocol, Iridium IMT - it appears that it is about 88kbs fast. That's pretty slow - so they must be doing some pretty big compressing for photos. Wonder what encoding is used for voice texts.

0 JungleJim over 1 year ago in reply to 1439062

I think the Messenger Plus uses a different Iridium service than the other inReach devices. The marketing materials speak about faster sending and receiving. Also sending pictures and voice messages is only supported on the new Plus. And since Iridium Certus is relatively new, that leads me to think that the new Plus is using this newer and faster Iridium service. Otherwise the functionality of the Plus could also have been added to the current range of inReach devices…

0 Volker over 1 year ago

One more question about pics:

the new plans include sending a certain number of pictures. If I have a non Messenger Plus iR device (Mini 2, 66/67i, Messenger (1), etc.) and get a new plan: I can't send pictures via satellite, right? Is this explicitly stated somewhere in the descriptions of the new plans? Sending pictures via satellite is only available for Messenger Plus due to hardware limitations, right?

0 JungleJim over 1 year ago in reply to Volker

The product page about the inreach plans states in a footnote "Photo and voice messaging is available only with select devices enabled with inReach technology and requires use of the Garmin Messenger app on your compatible smartphone". So no specific mention of Messenger Plus.

The FAQ on the new plans states in footnotes that the Messenger Plus is currently the only device that supports the picture and voice messaging feature.