Why secure group messaging can change your communications.
Secure Group Messaging refers to the ability to securely send and receive messages, text and data between one to many users in a Land Mobile Radio System. While we are used to smartphone communications, Land Mobile Radio Systems have advantages for organisations, providing cost savings and ease of use where one to many communications are required.
With the advent of Digital Two-Way Radio Systems, data functionality was increased to allow text messages, unit ID and status to be embedded in a single channel. In general, Two Way radios are non-display or limited display devices. This is when compared to the large screen smartphones which are so familiar to the markets today. The limited screen space means messaging is limited to abbreviations, codes, status messages and while larger screens are available the limited bandwidth available is the main limitation as to how sophisticated the data application can be.
While this may initially seem like a significant issue for messaging, in reality the abbreviations become second nature and users in the group quickly adapt. For many radio systems, secure group messaging is combined with pre-programmed messages to create a very quick, easy to use and highly secure communications system.
For instance, in a security situation, there may be pre-assigned messages to ask for assistance at specific locations, highlight a potential threat and so on. These can be activated in a couple of presses of a button, and combined with secure group messaging, sent to one, several, or all of the other operatives on duty instantly. With a secure system, only the group can see the messages, and in this way the threat response is never compromised.
For many applications, the combination of modern digital radio systems and secure group messaging enables practical, safe and easy to use communications even in stressful or sensitive situations. With ever more sophisticated ways of tapping into conversations, maintaining communication security is more important than ever before.