Approved for Public Release
2.0 MOBILE MESSAGING APPLICATIONS OVERVIEW
Smart phones and other mobile devices are ubiquitous in everyday society. First responder
agencies increasingly adapt and implement mobile technologies into their day-to-day operations, in
part because these devices can increase their capabilities in two critical domains: situational
awareness and communications and information sharing.
According to “Project Responder 5” [2] “Situational Awareness” is the capability to provide and
distill specific knowledge concerning emerging threats, hazards, and conditions in a timely fashion
to support incident management decisions across all phases of incident response.
“Communications and Information Sharing” is the ability for both the on-scene responder and
incident command to access, integrate, and display images and video from the incident scene.
2.1 PRIORITY FEATURES FOR FIRST RESPONDERS
Based on conversations with first responders, mobile messaging app features that are particularly
important to their work include, but are not limited to:
• Multimedia sharing – messaging app solutions able to send pictures (like .jpg and .png),
videos (such as mp4), and audio files (for example, mp3) between users
• Location sharing – messaging app solutions able to share the location of users to other
users also on the app’s platform
• Auditability – messaging app solutions able to be audited for both training purposes, after-
action reviews, and meeting legal or regulatory requirements
An effective mobile messaging platform would enable first responders to send location maps,
pictures, and other real-time alerts instantaneously to an entire first responder team. Users could
actively track the locations of other officers on duty, analyze pictures with layered information, and
stay abreast of unfolding situations through mass alerts. As a result, the messaging application
would enable the advanced coordination needed for first responders to manage large-scale events.
The application would also allow incidents, responder communications, and actions taken to be
revisited.
2.2 FIRSTNET
First responders may also access a priority network while using mobile messaging applications—a
matter of devices (hardware), not just applications (software). While using a particular software
solution can boost capacity for situational awareness and information sharing, using hardware
compatible with FirstNet can boost communications reliability as well as expand the range of
mobile applications available.
In 2012, Congress established FirstNet, a nationwide broadband network dedicated to first
responders – a response to the diminished communication capabilities first responders
experienced during 9/11 due to network congestion. During any incident with high-traffic network
activity, first responder devices connected to the FirstNet network receive priority for text and voice
communication, through a mechanism called “priority and pre-emption.”
9