Zoleo experience?

[dennisinaz]

If you want to have someone text you, the first text must be initiated by you. Texts are expensive and this is the way of limiting them. If someone has the app and they have communicated with you in the past they can initiate the conversation. You can also send emails.

Zoleo allows much bigger text messages than InReach but cannot send anything except SOS without your phone

 

[claybreaker]

Purchased a couple of zoleo units for this hunting season. My wife advised that she would really appreciate the peace of mind knowing that we could communicate. So thought I'd share my experience with the units. We are satisfied with the units. Pretty simple to use and worked quite well. The one thing that surprised me was when texting from zoleo to a cell phone that had service your text went through pretty darned fast. But when texting back and forth from one zoleo to another zoleo lots of times it would take better than 30 minutes for the messages to go through. But all in all things worked pretty darned smoothly. Would like to thank the people that contributed to this thread with all the great information they shared.

The speed in which your get responses can be adjusted be setting the "Message Check Interval" time period.
You can choose between "Always On" 60, 24, 12 minutes or "Manual" with the trade off being battery life.

I normally use 24 minutes intervals unless I'm in a more urgent conversion then I choose 6 minutes or manual.

 

[dmj]

Thank you. I didn't even know that you could adjust the speed it checked for messages. I'm not very tech savvy and will admit it. Appreciate the info. Hope you are having a great day.

 

[claybreaker]

If you want to have someone text you, the first text must be initiated by you. Texts are expensive and this is the way of limiting them. If someone has the app and they have communicated with you in the past they can initiate the conversation. You can also send emails.

Zoleo allows much bigger text messages than InReach but cannot send anything except SOS without your phone

A couple of things here, I have had different results:

I just ran a test (this afternoon) with with someone who doesn't have the Zoleo app nor did I text them first from my Zoleo. I told them my Zoleo phone # and they initiated a Zoleo based conversation by texting my Zoleo first.

"Zoleo allows much bigger text messages than InReach but cannot send anything except SOS without your phone"
I will say that you CAN, using the CHECK IN " " button on the face of the device you can send a "check in" message from the device itself without a phone or app. Bigger Zoleo messages are from Zoleo app to Zoleo app, 1047 character versus 160 characters for messaging to standard text apps.

 

[dmj]

Good morning everyone,
Not sure if this is the place to post this or not. But anyway noticed that camofire.com has the zoleo units on sale for $149 today.

 

[claybreaker]

Same SALE price ($149) is available at BlackOvis.com <<Link

 

[claybreaker]

Zoleo on sale today at camofire , LINK >>20May2022 Zoleo sale $149

 

[manitou]

And yes, Zoleo will do automatic periodic tracking of you and send it to your selected contacts.
This is to addrees the earlier post that says it will not. I set mine for every 15 minutes when in rugged country so my wife can find the coyotes gnawing on my bones if I take a fall, lol.

 

[ColoradoElkHunter]

And yes, Zoleo will do automatic periodic tracking of you and send it to your selected contacts.
This is to addrees the earlier post that says it will not. I set mine for every 15 minutes when in rugged country so my wife can find the coyotes gnawing on my bones if I take a fall, lol.

I tell my wife to wait for at least two weeks so the bloating will be down and the critters can remove the flesh. She was a real "Bones" fan but this still gets her ****ed when I say this. lol

 

[claybreaker]

And yes, Zoleo will do automatic periodic tracking of you and send it to your selected contacts.
This is to addrees the earlier post that says it will not. I set mine for every 15 minutes when in rugged country so my wife can find the coyotes gnawing on my bones if I take a fall, lol.

This is correct, that feature was not available in the earlier versions of the software but has since been added. Thanks for the correction.


Just noticed same price ($149) at Zoleo at GoHunt.com <<Link

 

[claybreaker]

Here an update: I just received as an email from Zoleo.

Big news! As of today, all ZOLEO monthly plans now include unlimited FREE check-in messages!​

We're constantly striving to provide you with the best possible value. With unlimited free check-ins, our aim is to ensure that ZOLEO offers the best messaging value of all Iridium-based satellite messengers. Go ahead and check in — these messages will help keep you safe and won't impact your budget!​

Effective November 29th, free check-ins will be automatically applied to all monthly plans. Check-in messages sent prior to this date will be billed at the regular rate on your next invoice.​

So it gets a little better.... don't you love competition.

 

[Reelamin]

I have both for no other reason than they will not communicate with each other. Sucks if your hunting partner has opposite brand. So far (year) they are pretty much the same and the zoleo has much better battery life.

 

[Reelamin]

Thanks for the heads up. After your insight, I do think the Zoleo is cheaper than the inReach. Thank you for the help.

Not by much, Costco $250 for Inreach kit.

 

[Horse43]

Zoleo has been reliable and great battery life for me VS Garmin mini. I have both.