We’ve been hard at work building the features that you want most. The most frequently requested features are the ability to send private messages to just one person, and an update to the Android app to bring it the same ease of use and clean look as our iOS app. Starting today, Orion Pro users on iOS can try a preview of direct messaging, and Android users will soon have a brand new app experience!

Available Today: Direct Messaging Preview on iOS

Group messaging is ideal for many situations, especially when you don’t know who has the answer to your question. But there are also times when you know exactly who needs the information you have. Or you want to minimize messages to the group so that everyone can stay focused on what they’re doing.

Starting today, Orion Pro users on iOS can simply press and hold a person’s name in their group to send a direct message. It gives you more control over how you communicate with the people on your team.

Download Orion Push to Talk for iOS in the App Store.

Coming Soon: New Orion app on Android

We’ve learned a lot from our app redesign on iOS. Over the past several months, we’ve completely rebuilt the Android app from the ground up, with simplicity and reliability as our top focus.

Along with transforming the visual design to be cleaner and easier to read, we’ve made the app more intuitive to navigate, and faster to add the people you need to your group.

The new Orion Android app will be available very soon!

At Orion, we are constantly working to give your team more superpowers with instant voice communication. We look forward to hearing your feedback! Please email us at support@orionlabs.io if you have any suggestions or questions.

Voice-enabled devices are appearing everywhere in the technology landscape. Smart speakers, TVs, gaming consoles, watches, and of course our own smartphones all have voice technology built into them now. “Voice is primed to become a productivity powerhouse,” as Orion CEO Jesse Robbins wrote in Forbes earlier this year. And enterprise push-to-talk is a cornerstone of voice-powered productivity.

The massive trend is about more than just voice calling; it’s about getting relevant information quickly, controlling equipment from a distance, and having always-on access to groups. More and more enterprise companies are looking for ways to use voice technology to their advantage.

Orion Push to Talk, our workforce collaboration app for frontline teams, provides just that. Orion Push to Talk is a simple, powerful enterprise push-to-talk solution for efficient group collaboration and access to business systems all in one. Teams can connect anytime, anywhere with reliable push-to-talk communication and business automations — using only workers’ smartphones.

Now let’s look at 5 ways enterprise companies are succeeding with enterprise push-to-talk.

1. Keeping employees heads-up and productive

Enterprise businesses depend on the dedication of teams, not solo contributors, to accomplish goals and complete projects. And those teams work most productively when they stay connected to each other while performing their individual jobs every day. But it’s important that the voice tools they use are heads-up, not distracting and time-consuming. Traditional tools like email, voice calls, and texting are all heads-down, whereas enterprise push-to-talk helps workers stay in the moment.

With enterprise push-to-talk solutions like Orion Push to Talk, workers don’t have to check their phones for updates. Voice messages from managers or colleagues play instantly through phone speakers and headphones, even when the phone screen is locked. So it’s easy for workers to stay focused on a project until the moment they’re needed by their team.

Unlimited communication range also enables enterprise teams to connect anytime and anywhere. This means that coworkers can still take advantage of the high-bandwidth communication value of voice without having to schedule meetings or constantly locate each other in the workplace to check in. Enterprise managers using push-to-talk instantly connect with their teams in the moment, giving and getting important information. Then employees can immediately get back to work.

2. Using voice-driven workflows to accelerate work

Unlike legacy push-to-talk solutions, smart push-to-talk solutions like Orion Push to Talk help enterprise teams to do more than talk. People accomplish increasingly complex tasks by using only their voice.

For example, a multinational mining company uses smart push-to-talk to fill out safety checklists for daily tasks. In doing so, they transformed what used to be a pen-and-paper process into a voice-driven process. When a worker is preparing to begin a routine but hazardous task, they tell Orion to “start my next task.” Then, guided by a voice bot, they run through a safety checklist to ensure they have everything they need to begin work safely. As a result, Orion Push to Talk has broadened the company’s opportunities to share information between teams and even conduct department-wide safety reviews.

Another example of how smart push-to-talk solutions enhance work communications with data is through instant translation. Enterprise push-to-talk with instant translation enables workers to speak their preferred language and be heard in their coworkers’ preferred languages. Organizations can also choose to add profession-specific vocabulary, such as medical dictionaries, to their translation solution. Instant translation is a huge benefit to globally distributed teams who may sometimes face a language barrier.

3. Gaining visibility into team activity with location and status tracking

Smart push-to-talk solutions offer enterprise team leaders two important ways to stay in tune with their teams. The first is GPS Location Tracking, which gives managers insight into their team members’ physical locations. Being able to quickly assess every worker’s location on a map can help managers ease daily planning, save time when unexpected needs arise, and reduce chatter.

The second is worker status. With traditional radio solutions, it was impossible to tell which team members were actively listening in talk groups. With smart push-to-talk solutions, managers instantly read each employee’s status: blue for online group members, yellow for muted members, and gray for offline members. Managers also easily page workers from within the mobile interface, eliminating the need to waste time figuring out how to get employees back online.

4. Flexibility: choosing the right communications tool for each worker

A good enterprise push-to-talk solution also offers flexibility with team access. Workers perform a variety of roles for your enterprise organization, so why not offer them a variety of ways to stay connected? A factory floor worker might need a push-to-talk wearable, while her manager who tends to work at a desk might be more productive with a smartphone-based solution. Smart push-to-talk solutions can serve the needs of both roles. It’s better for the organization and the team if employees can get instant, high-quality voice communication without having to use the same type of device or the same network connection.

Another aspect of device flexibility to consider is legacy solutions like land mobile radios (LMR). Traditional radios typically take months or years to select, configure, and deploy. Also, there’s often a corresponding training cost with legacy communications solutions. For companies that already have legacy solutions in place, they can still add smart push-to-talk easily, because new solutions have interoperability built-in. For an organization choosing its communication solutions for the first time, it makes sense to choose smart push-to-talk solutions that work with more devices than just radios.

Today’s communications solutions are easier to use than ever. With enterprise push-to-talk solutions like Orion, your team can set up devices and start talking quickly, whether they bring their own phones and tablets or use smartphones issued by the organization. Setting up a push-to-talk solution for an organization takes minutes or hours now, instead of months to years as it did in the past. That way, managers don’t need to force everyone on the team to fit the same mold, and organizations don’t have to rip out existing communications solutions.

5. Choosing security-focused solutions

Managers choosing communications tools for their enterprise teams must consider security and privacy. Using unsecured walkie-talkie apps designed for consumers means risking the loss of financially sensitive data, intellectual property, or personally identifiable data. It’s important to choose solutions designed with security in mind.

Enterprise companies choose end-to-end encrypted push-to-talk solutions for their team communications. Strong encryption is one security feature that makes it difficult for outside parties to gain access to valuable enterprise data. Additionally, it’s important that the communications provider not hold its customers’ encryption keys or retain data for long periods of time. Encrypted solutions like Orion use streaming protocols to limit provider exposure to company data.

Individual security features are important for team communication, too. With smart and secure push-to-talk solutions, enterprise managers control access to groups through a central command interface. They also rely on a range of privacy and permissions settings so team leaders can easily create groups, add and remove users, and set speaking modes such as Single Speaker Mode and Listen-Only. Additionally, managers and employees listen to messages privately using headphones and other accessories.

Learn more about Orion enterprise push-to-talk

Enterprise organizations increasingly count on Orion to keep their teams in sync. Learn more about how Orion can help enterprise teams and request a demo to get started.

Bringing Voice to the Enterprise

Apple’s announcement indicates the increasing adoption of push-to-talk (PTT) applications, which is becoming increasingly transformative for businesses in need of real-time communications. Global organizations are already using voice technology to power diverse integrations across devices to enhance team productivity, optimize resources, and boost revenue.

To dig deeper, we commissioned the 2018 Voice in the Workplace report, which examines the use of voice technology in today’s increasingly mobile workforce. Through our research, we found that businesses are not only relying on it to get work done, but effective use can actually set companies apart from their competitors. The biggest takeaway? Nearly 85 percent of professionals want to use voice tools in the workplace, and automation is playing a larger role in how businesses choose and use voice technology among global teams.

Another interesting finding? Consumer devices are not getting the job done. For organizations using devices like smartphones or consumer-grade tablets, many reported a variety of issues – most notably, poor battery life, unreliable network coverage and high device costs. Smart walkie-talkie solutions built specifically for the workplace, like Onyx and Orion Push to Talk, ensures team communication is not limited by device type, operating system, range, or physical location. Workers can stay connected anytime, anywhere, optimizing productivity that is essential to a company’s bottom line.

The Convergence of Voice and Automation

Earlier this year, I wrote about the three features that are fueling voice as a top trend in the enterprise for 2018. We’re not only seeing businesses adopt voice technology, but they are also integrating PTT with additional tools like automation, chatbots, and improved software and hardware.

• Workers can trigger processes that automate administrative data entry, such as logging expenses or tracking a shipment – with just a simple voice command.
• Chatbots can process speech commands and queries through artificial intelligence and natural language processing – removing the need to dig through spreadsheets or databases for information.
• The combination of hardware and software automation (think smartphones, wearables, home assistants, chatbots) means our devices will be able to better understand us and operate applications on our behalf.

Which Industries are Benefiting from Push-To-Talk (PTT)?

For communication in the enterprise, every minute counts and organizational devices must be purpose-built and equipped with the capabilities that keep workers connected, safe, efficient and productive. According to our Voice in the Workplace report, PTT technologies like real-time voice services, two-way radios, smart walkie talkies, and consumer radios are the primary communication tools for organizations in a myriad of industries that require heads up, real-time interaction. Of the industries we surveyed, hospitality professionals were most likely to use PTT, at a rate of 47 percent.

When we look at our roster of customers, it’s clear that voice technology is transforming the way that teams communicate across nearly every industry imaginable. We’re seeing businesses like a local flower shop with only 10 employees use Orion to connect delivery drivers and shop workers. We also have event spaces, like churches and amphitheaters, using our devices to manage employees across a widespread venue. Even security teams that rely heavily on communication in potentially dangerous situations are using Orion’s connected voice solutions to stay safe, connected, and enabled in their roles to respond quickly in emergencies.

Voice Will Power the Future of Business

Voice technology has advanced significantly over the past few years, and we’re continuing to see higher rates of adoption among consumers. We’re excited about the new developments occurring in the space, which are allowing more people to experience the possibilities of using voice at home, on their wrist or through their smartphone.

That’s why we believe in the power of voice in the workplace – we’re entering a new business landscape where the nature of work is evolving, and teams are faced with new challenges born out of our on-demand, always-on behaviors. The need for simpler, streamlined collaboration has never been more urgent, and the potential for technology to automate work and make employees more effective has never been higher. Voice is here, and it’s bridging the gap between humans and powerful technologies to simplify our everyday lives.

Learn more about Orion Labs at MWC Americas 2018

Want to know more about how Orion is helping enterprise companies and large organizations succeed using connected voice technology? We’ve got a big announcement coming up on September 12 at Mobile World Congress Americas. If you’re planning to be there, schedule a meeting at MWCA in Los Angeles to get a first look at what’s next. Can’t make it? Keep an eye on our blog for the exciting announcement on September 12.