iOS Devices
- catharine.rhoades (Unlicensed)
- Callan 🌙🦉 McNulty
- Grant Wyatt
iOS App Setup
Make sure you have uninstalled any previous version of Active911.
Go to the App Store on your phone, and search for "Active911". Download and install it.
Once the app is installed, open it and select OK on the Unregistered Device pop up. The first screen to appear will be the Alarms tab where it says Unregistered with Begin Receiving Alerts listed below.Select Being Receiving Alerts.
This takes you to the Help page. Follow the instructions according to your situation.
If you have your device code already, Select Settings on the center bottom of the screen.
In the Settings screen, enter the device code next to where is says X Unregistered. After you enter the code, it will register your device.
Warning: A pop up will appear asking Allow "Active911" to access your location while you use the app? It is necessary for you to select Allow for the device to completely connect.
After you have allowed access to your location a pop up will appear that says Device Registered Successfully.
If you do not have a device code yet, you will need to log into your Active911 account and have an Administrator of the account add the device under your account's Devices tab. Make sure the Page Type is set to "Active911 for iOS".
Note: Only account admins or other users with view/edit permission on the Devices tab have access to this. If your device has already been added to a department account, you can find your code under the Dashboard tab and under the My Devices heading.
As a final check, have an Admin go back to your Active911 account and use the test button to test paging functionality. If everything worked, you will get a page.
iOS App Settings
Near the bottom right side of the screen is a gear icon. Selecting the gear icon will open the in-app settings menu.
Registration
This is where the device code is entered to register the device with Active911 servers.
Standard Settings
Foreground GPS
This will track the location of the device ONLY while the app is open.
Background GPS ***
Screen Timeout
Theme
Mapping
Auto Routing
This setting should be enabled by default. With it enabled, when you open the mapping for a specific alert, the mapping system will automatically provide routing between your current position and the location of the alert.
Continuous Repaging
When this option is enabled, and your device receives a new alert, the Active911 app will to continue to notify your device until the app is opened and alert is viewed. This option was designed for people who work in loud environments, heavy sleepers, etc.
Override Silent
Enabling this setting will cause each alert received by your device to utilize Apple's Critical Alerts feature (only for devices using iOS 12 or newer). The Critical Alerts functionality will audibly alert your device at max volume, using the ringtone you select in the Active911 app, no matter what volume/vibrate/do not disturb settings you have selected on your device. This allows you to mute less important notifications, but always receive notifications for Active911 alerts.
Debug Logging
When enabled, the app will collect information about the Active911 app on your device. Active911's development team can use the logs to help troubleshoot specific problems.
Show Alerts For
Agency Specific Settings
Duty Status
Ringtone
Select the ringtone for when an alert goes off on your phone.
Groups
If your agency is setup to send alerts to pagegroups, you can manage the pagegroups your device is a part of. Chat groups mirror the selections you make for pagegroups. Some pagegroups are locked, and require the admin to add and remove devices.
Assignment
If your admin has created assignments, this is where you can manually select the assignment you are currently working. The selection you make will be visible to all the devices in your agency within the Personnel screen of the app.
Chat Notifications
Clear Alerts
Tap this button, and it will clear all the alerts off of your device. The alarms will still be in the alarms tab on the website.
About
Mapping
Accessing the Map
There are two ways to access the in-app mapping system:
There is a globe icon labeled "Map" in the main menu of the Active911 app. Selecting it will open the in-app mapping system, without routing or directions to a specific alert.
While viewing the details of a specific alert, you can tap on the address of the alert to open the in-app mapping system. The alert's location will be displayed, including a blue line between your device's location and the alert's location for routing purposes.
In-App Map Settings
While viewing the in-app mapping system, there is a circular icon with three rectangles vertically stacked. Selecting that icon will open the settings for the in-app mapping system.
Map Type
This setting will change the base layer displayed within the in-app mapping system. The default selection is Road.
Map Marker Density***
Devices, Locations, and Filters
Mapping Tools
Follow Me Mode
To center the map on your position, tap on the crosshair icon in the lower righthand corner. The icon will turn blue, and the map screen will follow your position as you move.
To exit Follow Me Mode, just pan/zoom the map or tap the crosshair icon again once.
Long Press/Hold Menu
There are several mapping tools you can access by committing a long press/hold with one finger anywhere on the map. A crosshair will appear on the point you pressed/held, and the menu will appear at the bottom of the screen. Here are the details of the tools in that menu:
Ruler - This tool can be used to draw a line. The distance of the line will be reported on the screen. Click the DISMISS option to exit the tool
Markers - Select this option will present you with two more options:
Nearest Markers - This tool will display a list of data points near the area you committed the long press/hold. Map data points closest to the point will appear at the top of the list, and map data points furthest away will appear at the bottom of the list.
Create Marker - This tool will open the workflow to create a new map data point. The map data point will be added at the point which the user committed the long press/hold. Only devices that have been granted the Edit Map Markers capability will see this option.
Alert - This tool will open the workflow to create and send an alert to devices. Only devices that have been granted the Send Alerts capability by an admin will see this option.
X - The "X" icon will close the menu, and remove the crosshair icon where the user committed the long press/hold on the map.
Sending Alerts
When you add a device to your account, or edit an already existing device, there is a "Send Alerts" option underneath the "Capabilities" section. If you enable this option, you will be able to generate alarms directly from the device by opening the map of an alert within the Active911 app, and using a one fingered long press on the map. This will place a cross-hair icon where you pressed on the map. You can change the location of the cross-hair icon by using another one fingered long press on the desired location on the map.
Tap the "Alert" option that appears near the bottom right of the map screen, and you can enter the information for the alert into a specific set of fields. The latitude and longitude for the location on the map where you committed the long press will automatically populate the "Place" field. This is especially useful for directing responders to precise locations with no address - for example, wilderness areas or points within football stadiums or fairground sites.
Troubleshooting
General Troubleshooting
Make sure you have downloaded the Active911 app from the App Store and installed it on your device. You should have also registered your phone with Active911 by tapping "Settings" in the App and entering the Device Code you got from your Active911 account (Devices tab).
In your phone, go to Settings and then Notification. Find Active911 in the list, and make sure that everything is turned ON.
Log into your Active911 account and click on the Devices tab (Admins only). If you are not an administrator of the account, you should be able to find your device code by looking in the tab with your name on it, it will be listed under "My Devices."
Find your phone in the list. Open it up and make sure "Page Type" is set to "iPhone/iPad App". Click Save.
Click on the speech bubble icon. This will send a test message to your phone.
If you get the test message, your phone is connected to Active911 properly. If you did not get the test page,
Open up the Active911 app and tap Settings at the bottom. Erase the registration code and tap Done.
Re-enter the code listed next to your phone in the Devices tab of your account. Your device should re-register with active911. Remember, this code is unique to your device - if you share it, it will stop working!
Try sending the test message (step 3 above)
Registration issues
In the March 2015 iOS update, Apple made us make a few changes with how we can register devices. This means that the app can say, "Device Successfully Registered," but show on the website in red as unregistered. This can be confusing.
When a user opens the Active911 app for the first time, two gray boxes will pop up. One will ask if, "Active911 can use location Services." The user should tap allow. The other pop up says, "Allow Active911 to send push notifications." Again choose "Allow." Push notifications are how we send the alerts to the device for iOS devices.
If the user presses, "Don't allow," they will still be allowed to enter their device code correctly and register their device. However, our system will not be able to actually send them the push notification since the user denied the push notifications.
Worse, these symptoms don't go away immediately even if you go back to settings and re-enable push notifications.
Of course, none of this is a problem if you select "allow push notifications" the first time, when Apple first asks you. To fix this, uninstall the app and then re-install the app 24 hours later. This will cause the phone to ask those two questions again, and you can can allow them both this time.
You can also trick your phone into thinking that more than 24 hours have elapsed since it was uninstalled. The following procedure will do this, allowing you to get the app properly registered and running sooner than waiting 24 hours.
Uninstall the app.
Restart the phone.
Go to Settings > General > Time and Date and take the device off the automatic network time and date setting.
Change the date to at least several days in the future.
Restart the device.
Verify that the phone thinks that it is several days in the future. Then reinstall the Active911 app.
When opening the app for the first time, there is a warning that Active911 would like to send the phone push notifications; make sure you select "Allow" for this. This is very important.
Restart the device.
Reset the time and date to the network settings.
If you still have issues with this, or if you need a more immediate (but much more complicated) fix, please contact our support team.