Starlink mobile app gets major update as SpaceX surpasses 90,000 active users

SpaceX’s Starlink mobile app received a refreshing upgrade this week that makes it easier to find bright areas of sky and monitor connection failures – and adds a new dark mode to its user interface. The app’s improvements emerged yesterday as SpaceX reported 90,000 active users in its “better-than-nothing” open beta, which so far covers rural areas in 12 different countries.

The “fully updated and refurbished” version, as SpaceX describes in its Apple App Store changelog, includes a new way to check your surroundings for obstructions before installing a Starlink terminal. Like its previous method, the app asks users to scan their surroundings using their phone’s camera, but the new version generates a small dome around your Starlink dish that covers potential obstructions, marked with different colors. Reddit users seemed impressed.

The new update also allows users to track how often Starlink service is interrupted with a new outage log that visualizes usage, latency and availability data.

SpaceX has launched 1,740 Starlink satellites since 2019, positioning itself as the world’s largest satellite operator with around 1,650 currently in orbit (after some were deorbed). The company told the Federal Communications Commission (PDF) on Monday that Starlink has about 90,000 active users, which include both individual households and various government users such as schools, cities and fire departments.

The potential of Starlink, a massive space-based internet service, to disrupt the grounded broadband fiber market may be tantalizing, but the company still has a ways to go, as we have noted. in our May review. SpaceX has updated its Starlink app a few times since then, with Monday’s update being the most significant yet.