Primary Alerting Android App - BETA test

Introduction

For Danish, click here.

FireServiceRota is aiming to provide a reliable, fast and efficient way to alert the right group of firefighters. We use a smartphone app that works in addition to or as a replacement of traditional pagers. This app is currently in test-phase to validate its reliability.

Versions and Changes

For a full overview of all the changes made in each version, see the Changelog attached to this article.

User instructions

Installation on X-Cover Pro

When installing the Primary Alerting App on an Samsung X-Cover Pro device, be sure to click "Activate".

This makes it possible to confirm incident responses by pressing the Orange button on the left side of the device. UPDATE: After the Android update in February 2021, this button has become unreliable again. We are working on a bug fix

How to respond to an incident?

After unlocking the phone, the incident should be visible immediately. At the bottom of your screen click a button to respond to the incident.

What to expect?

• If you are in the selected list of responders for the incident, you receive the alert on your smartphone within seconds of the pager alert.
  • This alert should work day and night, regardless of do-not-disturb mode.
  • Reducing the sound all the way to 'vibrate' will make the phone silent, and only use the vibration in case of the alert.
• You can click on the alert and confirm/reject the alert.
• You can see who else is alerted and their responses.

What's next?

• In future releases, we expect to add:
  • Make it easier to respond to an incident (fewer clicks). On the Samsung X Cover Pro, this can now be done by pressing the Orange button on the left side of the phone. [DONE]
  • Polish the UI and translate to other languages [DONE]
  • Improve app/phone monitoring in case the app did not show any recent sign of life. [DONE]
  • Install the scheduling (V3) app next to the alerting app and prevent double alert push notifications [DONE]
  • Automate fallback channels such as SMS and/or phone-calls if the push notification could not be (confirmed) delivered.
  • Improve the alerting mechanism and efficient re-alerting policies.
    • Staged re-alerting:
      • First alert team 1, fall back to team 2, then to team 3. [DONE]
      • If one driver is missing, re-alert only 1 additional driver instead of calling out all other drivers. [DONE]
    • Keep some scarce specialisations (such as commander/driver) on reserve in case only 2 crew-members are called out.

The list above reflects our current priorities and understanding, and are subject to changing priorities and insights.

How to provide feedback?

• If you expected to be alerted but did not receive the alert, start by verifying whether you should have received the alert. A station manager can inspect the incident in FireServiceRota, and verify if your name is listed in the list of "Crew confirmations". 
• For confirmed issues, please capture your feedback with a detailed explanation of what happened and what should have happened in this form. Screenshots and links are helpful.