We are pleased to announce that Metadata Service now supports HTTPS connections.

Previously, IoT devices could only connect to Metadata Service using unencrypted HTTP, with network security provided by Soracom Air's closed carrier network.

With this update, IoT devices can now connect to Metadata Service using HTTPS, enabling support for device applications that are required to access Metadata Service using a secure connection.

This update also provides support for Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS), allowing browser-based applications to access Metadata Service. When developing a browser-based application that will call Metadata Service, be sure to configure the appropriate CORS settings.

Note: HTTPS connections to Metadata Service still require an active Soracom Air connection. Connecting to Metadata Service using a separate internet connection is not supported.

For more information, please refer to the Metadata Service documentation.

We have expanded the set of characters that can be used when sending SMS messages to devices from the Soracom User Console or using the Soracom API/CLI.

Previously, when specifying GSM-7 (GSM 7-bit default alphabet) encoding, SMS messages only supported characters in the GSM-7 Basic Character Set. With this update, SMS messages can now include additional characters such as {, }, [, ], |, ^, and ~. The full list of supported characters is shown in the two tables below.

GSM-7 Encoding Basic Character Set

These are standard characters that are transmitted using 7 bits per character.

LF, CR, and SP represent the following control characters (with their Unicode code points):

• LF: Line Feed (U+000A)
• CR: Carriage Return (U+000D)
• SP: Space (U+0020)

GSM-7 Encoding Basic Character Set Extension

Note that these characters are sent using 14 bits per character (escape sequence 0x1B + extended character).

• FF represents the form feed character (U+21A1).

Please note that the interpretation and display of these characters on the device receiving the SMS message may vary depending on the device's implementation.

If you need to send characters that are not listed in the tables, consider using UCS-2 encoding.

We are excited to announce three new functions for customizing the output behavior of Flux Actions: Transform Data, Send event for each, and Delay.

Transform Data

The Transform Data function lets you customize the format of the data that will be sent to the next Flux channel, using data from both the action input and the action result. This allows you to remove any data in the action result that is unnecessary, as well as pass along data that was part of the original action input.

Send event for each

If data in an action result contains a JSON array, the Send event for each function lets you repeat subsequent actions for each item in the array. This allows you to generate multiple events from a single action, passing each item of the array as the action input data to the next Flux channel.

Delay

The Delay function allows you to set a duration (in seconds) that an action should wait before sending data to another channel. This allows you control of the timing of specific behavior, such as to ensure one action completes before another, or to adhere to rate limiting.

For more information, please refer to the Flux Action Output: Advanced Settings documentation.

We are excited to release a new Gadgets interface for the Soracom LTE-M Button, giving customers improved visibility and easier control over their buttons directly in the User Console.

Within this new interface, you can now view important information including your Soracom LTE-M Button's current mode, last connection, battery voltage, and other useful details. The interface also makes it easy to update button settings, such as changing the operation mode, configuring external accessories, and enabling additional options in order to take advantage of all of the Soracom LTE-M Button's features.

Gadgets UI Features

• View and manage all of your buttons in one place
• Check the connection, battery, and other status to identify problems quickly
• Configure button settings such as operation mode, external accessories, and other options
• Connect buttons to Soracom Beam, Soracom Funk, and Soracom Harvest Data for forwarding data to your web server, a cloud service, or simply storing directly on Soracom

For more information or to start managing your Soracom LTE-M Buttons with the new Gadgets interface, visit the Soracom LTE-M Button documentation.

We have added the following new options to the Soracom Cloud Camera Services (SoraCam) video export API, making it easier to download and play back exported videos on a variety of devices.

MP3 audio codec

You can now use the audioCodec parameter to specify MP3 as the audio codec when exporting videos. This makes it possible to play the audio stream in cases where your play back device is not compatible with a SoraCam-compatible device's default audio codec.

Note: Selecting MP3 as the audio codec will consume twice the standard export duration amount.

MP4 video format

You can now use the archive parameter to choose whether or not to download exported videos directly as an MP4 file. Doing so allows you to play videos without the additional step of extracting ZIP files.

For additional details on these new options, refer to the exportSoraCamDeviceRecordedVideo API reference (Japanese).

We are pleased to announce the following user interface improvements for Soracom Napter:

New Visual Explanation of the TLS Option

When creating an On-demand Remote Access session from the User Console, a new diagram will show the connection between the device and Napter, and the connection between Napter and the client. This diagram will update according to your TLS Option selection, allowing you to visually understand how the connection will be established:

View On-demand Remote Access Session Remaining Time

When viewing the list of On-demand Remote Access sessions, each session now displays the remaining time, allowing you to more easily check how much time is left before the session expires.

To check the originally requested session duration, simply hover your mouse over the [i] icon.

For more information, please refer to the Napter: Usage documentation.

We are pleased to announce that math functions can now be used in Soracom Flux expressions, such as in the execution condition of a Flux Action as well as in some input fields. These functions include trigonometric and logarithm functions, allowing for more complex calculations when building Flux applications.

For more information, please refer to the Use Expressions in Actions documentation.

Starting April 10, 2025, customers using invoice payments will have the option to change their payment due date from “month-end closing, next month-end payment (NET30)” to “month-end closing, payment end of month after next (NET60)”.

This change will apply to invoices issued for the April 2025 billing cycle onward.

Please note that a handling fee of 550 JPY (tax included) will be added per invoice when the due date is changed to NET60.

For details on how to switch to invoice payments or change the payment due date, please refer to the following guide: Update Invoice Information Issued by Net Protections (Japanese).

We are pleased to announce that the extension of the maximum Keep-Alive timeout for Soracom's HTTP entry points to 65 seconds will be rolled out starting from April 7, 2025.

As previously mentioned, by specifying Connection: keep-alive in the HTTP request header, devices using Soracom Air for Cellular and Soracom Arc can reuse TCP connections and reduce data usage due to reconnections when sending additional HTTP requests. With this change, if devices send HTTP requests to these entry points at intervals of less than 65 seconds, the connection will be maintained, and data usage will be reduced. Previously, the Keep-Alive timeout was set to 5 seconds.

Affected Entry Points

• Soracom Beam HTTP Entry Point
• Soracom Beam Website Entry Point
• Soracom Funk HTTP Entry Point
• Soracom Funnel HTTP Entry Point
• Soracom Harvest Data/Files HTTP Entry Point
• Unified Endpoint HTTP Entry Point

Implementation Date

April 7, 2025

This specification change will be reflected gradually after the implementation date.

Required Actions

If your device cannot support the extended Keep-Alive timeout, you can specify Connection: close in the HTTP request header to disable the Keep-Alive timeout.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact the Soracom support team.

We are pleased to announce the following coverage updates for Soracom Air for Cellular connectivity.

plan01s and plan01s-LDV

(*1) plan01s only

planP1