We answer your questions about push-to-talk.
Here you will find answers to the most common questions about Respondr, from push-to-talk basics to the plans.
The questions are grouped into five topics.
Push-to-talk basics
With push-to-talk you talk to the whole group by pressing a button: you hold it down, you speak and everyone on the channel hears you live. When you release it, someone else can talk. This is how professional radio has always worked: it is instant and reaches your whole team at once, with no calls and no waiting.
Your voice is digitized on the phone, sent over mobile data to a server and forwarded to everyone on the channel while you are still talking. It travels as data: it works anywhere the phone has coverage, on 4G, 5G or Wi-Fi, and it is not limited by the range of a radio transmitter.
They are the same thing: push-to-talk carried over a mobile network instead of a radio network. PoC stands for Push-to-talk Over Cellular. A "PoC radio" is a handset that looks and feels like a two-way radio but is actually an Android device using the mobile network.
It behaves the same way, but it is not the same technology. A radio transmits directly on a licensed frequency and keeps working with no network at all. Push-to-talk over cellular depends on mobile coverage but has no range limit and needs no frequency license. Respondr exists because almost every organization needs both, on the same channel.
A dispatch console is the workstation from which the operator sees and controls all channels at once: who is transmitting, which teams are on which channel, where the vehicles are and, thanks to recording, what was said. The Respondr console runs in the browser, on a desktop client or on dedicated hardware.
An intercom channel is a Respondr channel with no radio behind it. The server relays the voice between the app and console users, one at a time, and the channel also carries text, photos, documents and positions. A radio channel, by contrast, is linked to a gateway. In the dispatcher both types are handled the same way and can be patched together.
Radio networks and gateways
A radio gateway is a device that connects an existing radio network to an IP network, translating audio and signaling in both directions. RoIP (Radio over IP) is the general name for this kind of transport: it lets someone with a smartphone talk to someone with a handheld radio, on the same channel, without either of them needing to know.
Respondr connects to analog VHF and UHF networks over a 4-wire E&M interface, including aeronautical and marine VHF. It also connects to DMR Tier I, II and III, TETRA (TMO and DMO), NEXEDGE and P25 networks. The connection is made through FunkTronic, Radio Data, JPS, Kenwood or Radio Activity radio gateways, depending on the network.
That is the point of the product. The radios stay in the field on the network they already use; the gateway bridges that network into Respondr, and the dispatcher, the phones and the radios end up on shared channels. Nothing has to be replaced to start.
Interoperability is getting teams on different radio systems to hear each other. A fire brigade on DMR, a police unit on TETRA and a contractor on analog VHF normally cannot. Bridged through gateways into one platform, they can be patched onto a shared channel for as long as the incident lasts.
The radio side keeps working. This is the real argument for a hybrid system: the radio network is independent infrastructure and does not depend on a mobile operator. In an on-premise deployment the dispatcher and the local gateways also keep working with no external connection at all. People who use only the app depend on mobile or Wi-Fi coverage: the app reconnects by itself as soon as a network is available again.
No. A PoC radio uses the mobile network, so it needs a SIM and a data plan, not a frequency license. The radio side of a hybrid system, on the other hand, still needs the licenses its frequencies require: that does not change.
Devices and accessories
Yes. With Respondr installed, an ordinary iPhone or Android phone becomes a channel radio: you can use it on screen, or with a Bluetooth button or a wired speaker-microphone if you need a real key to press.
The rugged models built for this purpose have one: the Samsung Galaxy XCover range, RugGear RG880i and RG190, PoC radios from Inrico (including the S380) and Telox, iSafe rugged phones and the Siyata SD7. On each of them Respondr uses the manufacturer’s hardware key. The key mapping for each model is on the supported devices page.
Yes. The XCover key works like a radio PTT: press to transmit, release to stop, through the Samsung Knox hardware-key interface. On models with a dedicated emergency key, that key raises an SOS alert instead. No accessory is needed.
Yes, with the Business and Enterprise plans, if the device shares its position. Respondr shows live GPS positions on the map, supports live location sharing for the duration of a job and records signal-strength samples to build a radio coverage heatmap.
Yes, with the Business and Enterprise plans. Respondr detects a man-down event from the phone’s motion sensors, with a pre-alarm that the user can cancel. A dedicated SOS button sends the dispatcher an alarm with the user’s position.
Deployment, security and data
Yes, with the Enterprise plan. The entire platform, including the core, the database and recording, is installed on your hardware, inside your network. The dedicated server can also run on AWS, in the country you choose.
With Enterprise, the Respondr server can be installed in your network: apps, consoles and radio gateways connect to the server without going through the internet. With Free, Essential and Business, Respondr runs on AWS, so apps and consoles need an internet connection: a 4G or 5G mobile network, Wi-Fi or low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites such as Starlink.
With Free, Essential and Business, the data is hosted on AWS in the European Union, on encrypted volumes. With Enterprise, the server is dedicated: on premise the data never leaves your building, and on AWS it stays in the country you choose.
Yes, with the Business and Enterprise plans. Channel audio can be recorded, searched and played back, and an optional transcription makes it searchable as text. Retention is a setting, not a fixed rule: keeping everything forever is a risk.
Respondr encrypts voice and messages between the app, the console and the server. It offers two-factor authentication, supports single sign-on with your identity provider and applies permissions per channel and per gateway. It locks an account after five failed sign-ins and keeps separate audit logs. NIS2 does not certify products: the obligations belong to your organization, and these features help you meet them. The architecture is designed with reference to IEC 62443, targeting Security Level 2; Respondr holds no certification from a third-party body.
Voice and messages travel encrypted between the app, the console and the server: TLS 1.3 on every connection, and AES-128-GCM on audio sent over UDP. Recordings and saved messages are encrypted at rest with AES-256. The server decrypts the audio because it has to relay it to the channel members, record it when recording is on and show it in the history. With Enterprise the server is dedicated, and the data stays in the country you choose or in your local network.
The console and the apps are in English.
Getting started
You can start for free with the Free plan. The other plans are Essential, Business and Enterprise: the Plans page compares their features. For prices, you can contact us.
Yes. With the Free plan you can try the app and the browser console right away. To see the Business and Enterprise features, such as man-down or the connection to radios, you can schedule a demo.
Yes. With intercom channels your team uses Respondr only from the app and the browser console: group push-to-talk, one-to-one calls and chat work without any gateway, and so do SOS, man-down and positions on the map (with Business). Radios can be added later, with a dedicated server in the cloud or on premise and the Enterprise plan.
The IP side (users, channels and apps) is configured from the console, with no hardware to install. The radio side depends on the gateway, the site and the network you connect to: that is why we would rather look at your situation than write a number here.
Today integration goes through the mobile app: it publishes an open set of Android intents that third-party hardware and apps can use to drive push-to-talk, SOS and channel changes. A public, documented API for server-side integrations is not available today; if you need a specific integration, we can discuss it in a demo.
Do you have more questions?
We offer a 30-minute live demo built around your radio infrastructure.