The surprising functionality of pre-programmed text messages in the Two-way-radio industry

It’s one way for your organization to save on the costs of sending texts via cellphone carriers.

Yet keypads and LCDs can represent more functionality than many business radio users need, and nobody wants to pay good money for features their staffs will not use. Many people might not realize that even a basic business-class digital radio can still handle some text-messaging chores. For example, the Vertex Standard EVX-531 is a low-frills digital workhorse ­— no LCD, no keypad, just straightforward push-to-talk functionality. But because it’s digital, it can still be programmed to send up to three prerecorded text messages via a button on the side of the unit.

What can it do with no keypad or LCD? More than you might suspect. Say you’re running a large department store that has three scenarios that happen most often: lost children, spilled drinks and shoplifting in progress. You can have your sales floor staff’s radios programmed to send one of these automated messages to a supervisor or security officer if they see a need to keep things discreet.  The radio also can signal whether the message has been received or ignored.

(How else can two-way radios help manage a department store? Consider reading: Two-Way Radio Needs for Retailers Large and Small)

Messages can be programmed to go only to specific radios; there’s no point sending a text to a radio with no LCD, for instance.  More advanced radios can send and receive dozens of preprogrammed text messages, which is perfect for transmitting:

• Building addresses
• Phone numbers
• GPS coordinates
• Common deadlines for large groups
• Notices calling people to gather in one spot.

The key advantage to preprogramming your most often-used messages is that everybody in your network saves time that would be lost to retyping these messages every time they need to be sent. In a large network, that can add up to substantial productivity improvements.

Key issues for text messaging on digital radios

It’s not cell service. 

The most advanced two-way radios have keypads and LCD screens, enabling texting capability much like people enjoy on their cellphones (minus the data fees carriers charge). But the messages usually can be sent only to other digital radios in the network — not to cellphones.

People have to be trained.

Sending and receiving texts on a two-way radio can be a bit complex because a radio has so many other functions. You’ll have to set time aside to train your users to make the most use of your texting capability.

You may need a protocol. 

Large, complex radio networks will probably need to have firm rules on when texting is allowed. Ideally, texting should be used only when it has a distinct advantage over voice conversations. You also need to account for the inherently addictive nature of back-and-forth chatting, which can eat into productivity.

Texting is real-time.

Texts sent to a radio that is turned off will not be saved.

Message lengths may be limited.

You need to be sure that any preprogrammed messages do not exceed the character limits of your individual radios.

You have I.P. capability. 

Since digital radios encode voice and text data in digital form, your network can be structured to allow a wide range of digital data from the Internet to be transmitted to and from individual radios, within the limits of whatever the radio can handle. That can dramatically widen the capacity of your two-way radio network, but it also adds another layer of complexity.