New apps are making super-convenient push-to-talk do more...
Push-to-talk, or PTT, is one of those can’t-do-without functions of mission-critical comms for good reason – just push a button and you’re talking to your whole group. What could be easier?
Now, as public safety organisations adopt broadband, push-to-talk is breaking out from its PMR heartland and into smartphones. This opens up a new world of possibilities created by advanced communications apps.
Push-to-talk means the speaker presses and holds the PTT key to talk to the group. But what if several people want to speak at once? With the right app, the user presses and holds the PTT key and waits for their turn. They simply stay in the queue as long as they keep the key pressed.
Apps can also let a user or a dispatcher make a broadcast call to everyone in a group.
A PTT call can also go to a single person, either over a normal duplex call or as a walkie-talkie type semi-duplex call.
The best PTT apps can also invite the user to a group call from a current one-to-one call. The important group calls will therefore not go unnoticed.
What about when the inevitable emergency crops up? Get the right app and you can get through to your designated emergency contact at the push of a button. It can go to dispatcher, or another radio user, or a group call, routing the call to other numbers if the first choice person fails to answer.
You could also send your status at the press of a button - preset text messages such as “on duty,” “task taken” and “at destination,” can all be sent quickly.
Advanced public safety applications can take the concept of push-to-talk to new levels.
Take a closer look at the Tactilon Agnet app - it can deliver all of the above:
Or take a look at the state of professional apps as uncovered by a survey of users and developers.