Zoleo Satellite Communicator Review

Welcome to my Zoleo Satellite Communicator Review!

In 2016, legendary thru-hiker, Stephen “Otter” Olshansky died on the Continental Divide Trail, after getting snowed in while likely suffering from influenza, just 12 miles from the public road from where he was dropped off, near the Colorado/New Mexico border. He had hiked the CDT, and as well the AT, and PCT multiple times, making him one of the most accomplished thru-hikers in history, with tens of thousands of miles of hiking experience.

In January of 2023, actor and mountaineer Julian Sands likely became lost and perished in the Mount Baldy, Los Angeles County, CA area, during a winter storm on that inhospitable mountain. His body is yet to be recovered.

In April of 2021, Alex Lofgren and Emily Henkel suffered two tire flats on their Subaru Forester in a remote region of Death Valley, CA. After trying to hike back to civilization, and taking a wrong turn onto a cliff side of a mountain in the park, Alex decided to try to climb down that steep section, unaided by climbing gear, and fell to his death. Emily was able to climb down to him, to tend to his body, but became stuck with no way to climb back up, or climb down the rest of the cliff. She suffered a broken ankle in her attempt to climb down to Alex.

Common denominator in backcountry tragedies

All these wilderness stories have one thing in common: none of these folks had a satellite communicator with them, that would have saved their lives, simply by the pressing of the sat com’s SOS button, and transmitting their coordinates, and distress message to Search & Rescue. For the love of all you hold dear, I urge you to not enter the backcountry without a means of communicating, via satellite, with emergency services.

Yes, I went Zoleo-less when I was young and lucky. But I’ve heard too many of those stories at this point.

Zoleo Review Pro’s and Con’s

Pro’s:

• hitting the SOS button puts you in touch with Global Rescue, an experienced company with over 20,000 rescues under their belt from all over the world. They will contact local authorities to come get you, and keep you in the loop, via the Zoleo app, as to where search and rescue is. You can also purchase a Global Rescue membership, separate from the Zoleo plans, and they will personally extract you from the field if needed, with one of their 1,000 aircraft in their arsenal and their own military trained teams.
• Texting and emailing on the app is intuitive, and is the same as using your smartphone’s texting platform, so there is no learning curve in messaging contacts.
• You can text/email anyone you like from your smart phone’s contact list. They don’t need the app, like some other communicators do, to receive and send texts/emails to your Zoleo number or email.
• Unlike Apple iPhone’s SOS or Motorola Defy, the Iridium Satellite network has global coverage, so you can text from anywhere in the world.
• Hitting the Check-in button on the Zoleo or on the app will give your dedicated contacts a message that has your coordinates, and where you are on a map. As long as you have a Zoleo plan, this service is free and unlimited. By purchasing a $6 per month add-on, the device will do this automatically for you and put everywhere you’ve been on a map, via breadcrumb markers, for your contacts to see.
• You can download offline maps of the area you’ll be in. By hitting the check-in button, you’ll be able to see where on those maps you are, in the app.
• 4-day weather forecast, and 12-hour forecast for the current day
• If you are in cell service, or near Wifi, you can send unlimited messages and emails, and check the weather as much as you want without it counting against your plan limit of satellite messages. The Zoleo automatically knows if you are within range of your carrier’s cell towers and sends the message through them if it can, so that it doesn’t use up your limited satellite messages.
• the Zoleo device is cheaper than Garmin InReach device, its main competitor.
• You can park your plan in the off season for $4 per month, so you don’t lose your Zoleo text number or email.

Con’s:

• No on-device custom two-way messaging, or GPS location
• scrolling through the hourly weather forecast on the app too far to the left crashes the app, and re-loading the weather can cost against your plan limit (if there is no cell service at the time and you have to use the satellite network to get the latest weather). So be careful and don’t swipe past 12 hours ahead, on the weather app.
• Like all satellite devices on the market, it’s hard to get a satellite signal in deep canyons and under dense forests.

Explore Bolder

I listed all the objective pro’s above.

However as a solo hiker, the best part about my Zoleo is that I feel as though I can hike bolder into areas I would be more resistant to go into, due to lack of cell phone signal coverage, or the remote nature of the trail. Some of those trails in Santa Anita Canyon are just not traveled, and the hike in campsites in the area there are mostly unused. In the past when I’d go into those areas with just a phone, I always had a spooky feeling and the desire to hurry through them.

Plus it’s good to have when traveling in my car to Northern California destinations. California is such a vast piece of land, that there are places you could break down, and be obligated to hike days back to civilization.

Signal Coverage

The Iridium Satellite Network covers every inch of the Earth’s surface with its 66 active satellites and 9 standby satellites. And these are all brand new satellites placed in orbit within the last 10 years to replace the older Iridium satellites from the late 90’s and 2000’s.

Compare that the the Motorola Defy’s Skylo Network which seemingly seeks to only fill cell service coverage gaps near high trafficked areas of the globe, like between major US cities and towns. Even Apple’s satellite partner, Globalstar, doesn’t have total Earth surface coverage like the Iridium Network does.

I’ve never had a problem sending or receiving texts from my girlfriend when I’m using the satellite messaging on my Zoleo, nor sending check-ins to her and my dad. Even in areas where there is moderate tree cover, like some trails in Topanga State Park or the Santa Monica Mountains, I’ve always been able to send and receive satellite messages.

And the Zoleo seamlessly is able to switch between satellite messaging and cell tower messaging, without you having to do anything. I’ll send a satellite message out and 5 minutes later, if I happen to be at a point on the trail that temporarily has cell coverage, I’ll get a message back from my girlfriend via a cell tower. This saves me plan limit satellite messages, and keeps me away from the $0.50 per satellite message cost, if I go over my plan limit.

Keep in mind though, that these satellites are moving relative to the Earth’s surface, so you can get variations in satellite signal strength and availability over a period of time. Also the Zoleo won’t work inside buildings, in narrow canyons, glacier crevasses, dense tree coverings, or other places where it can’t see the satellites in the sky.

Portability

The Zoleo device and its included carabiner weigh in at around 5 and 1/2 ounces. I just attach it to my pack and don’t even notice the weight gain. It’s about the same weight as the competitors.

My Gregory Zulu 30, and Paragon 58 packs both have a hanging loop at their tops. I usually just attach my Zoleo to those loops, via the carabiner, when on trail. You can also attach the carabiner to the Zulu 30’s sunglasses strap on the shoulder strap, then tie the device down with the lower sunglasses holder elastic cord, so that it won’t swing around. Though this does put a little too much strain on that elastic cord, so probably not the best long term solution.

You can buy attachments for the device to clip it to belts, camera stands, and in-line straps. And you can buy a carrying case that’s waterproof, floats, and crush-proof. The Zoleo is waterproof, but I’m not sure it floats.

Hardware & Durability

Body

The body is made out of a rubbery plastic that feels like it could absorb a good amount of shock if dropped. Indeed the Zoleo is MIL-STD 810G rated, which means it meets Department of Defense standards for military equipment in harsh environments, regarding a series of tests – those of most concern being shock and vibration.

The body is mostly symmetrical, with no odd antennae like the Garmin InReach has, which is, by the nature of its shape, a weak point in a collision (with the ground, from dropping it). And though the Zoleo lacks a communication screen and buttons on its body, like the InReach has, that’s one less point of collision failure as well.

The only somewhat exposed button the Zoleo has, is its check-in button, but it doesn’t rise out of its body, and is designed to be rather small, such that it is less likely to be a point of failure in a collision.

The SOS button is hidden under a plastic door and thus again not likely to suffer during a drop on the ground or tumble down a hill.

The body is also dust and waterproof, and rated at the IP68 standard for these, meaning dust cannot penetrate the inner workings of the device, and it can withstand being held under water, up to a meter, for up to 30 minutes. So dropping it in the creek, or getting wet from rain, is not a concern.

I’ve not dropped my device as of yet, but am not concerned about it if I do. Further my day pack, and person, all fit under the same poncho in the rain, so it’s not yet experienced a wet environment.

Battery Life

I’ve yet to exhaust the Zoleo’s battery with a series of day hikes over the last 3 months, representing a cumulative use of between 36-48 hours. It’s not even close to exhaustion, but I will likely charge it up anyway, fairly soon, just to have it on full.

This summer I have some shorter backpacking trips planned, and will be doing 12-16 hours on, and 8-12 hours off daily. If I see any unusual draw downs I will report it here.

But apparently the device can operate 200+ hours, checking messages every 12 minutes. It also says that its operating temperature is between -4°F to 131°F, but I’m skeptical that it can go 200 hours at zero degrees Fahrenheit, and would probably want to keep it inside my puffer jacket pocket for warmth, were I to be out in such conditions.

Related: Check out my Cotopaxi Fuego puffer jacket review. This camping jacket does have an internal pocket that could fit a Zoleo and a Sawyer water filter if need be.

Zoleo Plans

I go over Zoleo Plans in detail in this article I wrote on the matter.

The main difference in plans

But basically the only difference between the 3 available Zoleo plans – the Basic, the In Touch, and Unlimited – is the satellite message limit you get. The Basic gives you 25 satellite messages per month, the In Touch gives you 250, and the Unlimited gives you unlimited satellite messages within reason, based on Zoleo’s fair use policy. The price points are $20, $35, and $50 per month respectively.

The main similarities between all plans

Everything else is the same.

You get a dedicated Zoleo phone number for texting only. You get a dedicated Zoleo email address. If your are in cell service or Wifi range, you’ll get free messaging that doesn’t count against your limit. You get to press the check-in button as much as you want, to give your contacts your current coordinates and where you are on a map. The SOS and Search & Rescue messaging doesn’t count against your satellite message limit. You get 2 SOS contacts, and 5 check-in contacts, the former of which will be contacted if you hit the SOS button, and the latter of which will receive your coordinates and map location when you send a check-in message. Satellite weather checking counts as 1 satellite message. Cellular weather checking is free. And after 3 months from activation, you can park your plan for $4/month and keep your dedicated Zoleo number and email.

Add-Ons

Add-ons include $6/month automatic check-in messages, and a breadcrumb trail of where you’ve been on a map for your check-in contacts, and for yourself in the app; additional satellite messages in increments of 20 or 75, for reasonable fees; and though it’s not part of Zoleo, you can buy a membership with Global Rescue, Zoleo’s SOS coordination third party, and they will personally come get you in the backcountry if you are in trouble, and local authorities aren’t able to reach you.

Ease of Use

Device Activation

Getting my Zoleo up and running wasn’t hard. It was just the normal process of making an account, adding a credit card number, adding the mandatory 2 contacts’ information to complete the process.

After such, you just have to download the app, and pair it with your Zoleo device, i.e. making sure when you power it up, that the correct serial number is displayed on the app, and picking it.

Seems like you can get up and running in less than 1/2 an hour.

But you do need to be near cellular or Wifi for these initial steps. You can’t buy a brand new Zoleo then take it into the backcountry, hoping to create and account and activate it there.

Adding and removing contacts

I go over how to add and remove SOS and Check-in contacts, as well as add new people to your general contact list in my article How To Add or Delete Zoleo Contacts.

The main thing to know is that you’re required to have 2 SOS contacts, so if you need to remove one of them, you’ll need at least 3 general contacts (your original SOS contacts and one more person you’ve added), so you’ll have someone to replace them with.

I think the 5 Check-in contacts is pretty generous, as it allows those 5 people to know where your are every time you hit the check in button. I’m personally using it with just 2 people right now. And the reason is that every time you check-in, there is the tendency for the check-in contact to want to message you back to tell you that they got the check-in, even though the Zoleo will make some ring tone sounds that tells you your message was sent successfully. I don’t want 5 people telling me they got the message and burning off 5 of my satellite messages against my limit.

SOS messaging

Luckily I cannot comment on first hand use of the SOS messaging.

I like that it can be activated both on the Zoleo device and on the app, so if you fall down, and are not in a position to reach both your phone and the device, you need only one to activate SOS. Plus since the Zoleo’s battery will likely grossly outlast a smartphone’s, then you still have that ability to get help, even if your phone has run out of charge.

The Zoleo device will alert you that your SOS message has been acknowledged with a ring tone and LED pattern. So again, even if you don’t have your phone, you can still get help and know that you’re getting help.

If you do have your phone, the SOS activation will open up a chat in the app with a Response Agent, at Global Rescue, which, as mentioned above, is a large Search & Rescue operation that can coordinate your rescue with local authorities. Your Response Agent will let you know what’s happening during the stages of your rescue. Further, if you have a Global Rescue membership, they may even send out their own team to get you, if locals don’t have the capacity to get you in time.

Non-emergency messaging

Non-emergency messaging is the reason to get a Zoleo over its competitors.

The text and email messaging just feels like your phone’s normal texting app, so there’s not much to learn when starting out.

And though it’s helpful if people you are texting with have the Zoleo app also, as it lets both of you send longer messages, it’s not necessary. All they have to do is know that your Zoleo text number is different than your normal number, and be on the lookout, or program it in their phones.

Two way messaging significantly better than competitors

The Motorola Defy on the other hand will let you text a friend, but that friend then has to download the Defy app to send you a reply.

And the Garmin InReach has a confusing system, where it basically has a new number every time you turn it on, so multiple conversations won’t be on the same thread like the Zoleo app, or your phone’s normal text app. And your friends and loved ones won’t be able to initiate a conversation either. They have to wait until you’ve powered up your InReach and sent them a message telling them that such is currently your number.

Even more inconvenient, emails on the Garmin only work with other InReach users.

Seamless cell and satellite communication coordination

Again, just like your normal phone texting app, the Zoleo keeps multi-day, or multi-year conversation threads all together, regardless if the messages you are sending and receiving are through the satellite or the cell tower. Zoleo coordinates all this in the background so you don’t have to think about it. It will even tell you if your message went through the satellite system, or the cellular tower system, so you can get a feel for how near you’re getting to your monthly plan limit.

Message checking interval

You can tell the Zoleo to check for messages at different time intervals. These intervals range from continuous checking to manual checking only. So if you want to save battery life, you can just set the checking to the manual option and check your messages at the end of the day.

I keep mine at 12 minute checking, just to keep conversations going back and forth, in the moment, as much as possible.

Email has restrictions you need to pay attention to

Even though you can communicate with others via their email address, your conversation is limited to around 200 some characters. This means you can’t use the email for anything other than text-like conversation.

Your contacts can’t send html, or attachments in their email to you. And if they try to forward a piece of email to you, likely you’ll only see the first few sentences, because the date and subject will eat up a lot of character real estate before the body of the message is shown. Once the character limit is reached, the rest of the email is truncated, i.e. lost.

Same goes for emails that have history threads to them. That history just doesn’t have enough room to show up. Indeed it’s best to instruct your contacts to start a brand new email every time they reply to you.

Further it’s not recommended that you forward your normal email to your Zoleo email address while on vacation. Unless all you care about is who sent the email and the subject line.

Weather

The weather info on the Zoleo app is pretty info packed. You get the name of the area the weather is showing for, the current temp, highs and lows for the day, wind chill factor, the current rain percentage situation, the expected rain accumulation in inches for the day, wind speed and direction, linear visibility, time of sun up and sun down, and a direct sunlight score that will be zero on cloudy days.

You get today’s weather, with a 12 hour forward forecast, as well as a daily forecast for the next 4 days. Just be careful scrolling through the hourly forecast. On my app, if I try to scroll past the 12 hours ahead mark the app crashes and I have to reload it. Not a big deal near cell service. But if you have to access the weather via satellite, every time you open it, you’re spending one of your satellite messages allotted to your plan limit.

Check-In messaging

Check-In messaging does not count against your message limit regardless of delivery. And you can do check-ins on the app, or on the device itself. When you hit the check-in button, by default, your coordinates, a map, and map marker of your position on it will be transmitted to your check in contacts. But you can turn those positional transmissions off if you want. I of course leave mine on default, so were I to go missing, at least my contacts would have my last known spot on the trail.

The nice thing about check-in messaging is you too receive your own check-in, so you can see exactly where you are on a map. Just remember to download offline maps of where you’ll be, via the app, before you go deep into the backcountry.

I usually power my Zoleo up where there is still cell service and the app just automatically has the correct maps loaded for me, so I don’t have to do anything map related, for my check-ins to work properly. Likely if you just let the Zoleo app follow you, even when it’s not in use, you’ll have your area of interest’s maps already ready to go for your check-ins. But if you’re going out to the John Muir trail for several weeks, I would still proactively download your maps.

Multi-person use of the Zoleo

I’ve written an article on when and when you can’t use the Zoleo with multiple users, so click this link to check it out. The instructions for doing so are there.

But basically, you can lend your device out to another person to use for a trip, as long as they too have a Zoleo account. That way they have their own dedicated number, email, and contacts. You just have to un-pair your device from your app, and they have to pair theirs with it.

However, you can’t have multiple users, with their own Zoleo apps on their phones, all using the same Zoleo on the trail, at the same time. Once your Zoleo serial number is paired to your phone, it won’t pair to others.

Finding a lost Zoleo

Check out my article on when and when you can’t find a lost Zoleo. (And how to do it.)

If you’ve just misplaced it while in the field, then you can get on the app, and go to the ‘Find My Device’ feature to make the Zoleo device transmit a two toned alarm and flash its red LED’s. That way if it’s near you somewhere you’ll be able to hear or see it.

Now if it’s totally lost or stolen, when powered off, there’s no way to see where it’s at, unless someone powers it on and presses the check-in button; in which case, you and your contacts will get the coordinates of the device.

Zoleo versus the Motorola Defy

And yes, I even have an article comparing the Motorola Defy to the Zoleo.

However I’ll just summarize it as this: the Zoleo has better global satellite coverage, and better messaging, but is more expensive to own and operate.

Further Reading

Thanks for checking out my Zoleo review! For more info on navigation and communication check out my dedicated page for that! There you can find all my Zoleo and Gaia GPS articles.

See ya out there…