Beacon v4.0 Release

It’s our great pleasure to share with you our new and updated version of Beacon Emergency Dispatch platform v4.0. We’re very excited to be able to make this available to you and trust the changes will provide significant improvements to your emergency communications.

If you’re an existing user, keep reading below for all the new updates.

If you don’t have an account yet, start your 90-day free trial account here.

Beacon Mobile App Updates

We’ve re-written the Beacon Mobile App (in Flutter) and you can now download the new version here:

The old version of Beacon (v3.3) will no longer work, so please share the following information with your crews and personnel to ensure that everyone can transition easily to the new app:

1. Log out of Beacon v3.3 and uninstall it from your device
2. Download and install Beacon v4.0 for Android or iPhone
3. After installing the new app, go to the “Settings” screen and click on the “Tour” link at the bottom of the screen to get a quick overview of the new app’s layout and functionality

Important!

New Responder Workflows: As part of the new updates, we have added additional steps to the workflows for certain Responder Types. Please take a couple minutes to read this link about how the new workflows function (this link discusses the workflow changes for SMS, but they also apply to the mobile app, too.)

Reminder: As always, the Beacon Mobile App needs to be paired to an existing Agency Account, otherwise the app will be put in a Demo account with limited functionality.

Web Dispatcher Updates

Before logging in, please be sure to first clear your browser cache and cookies.The most important change you’ll see is in the Create New Incident panel. Please read this link to learn more.

Account Pricing

Owing to significant increases in Beacon users over the past 6 months, and the subsequent increases in server and messaging costs, we’re no longer making Beacon free of charge. New agency accounts will now be offered starting at US$100/month.What does this mean for you?For small agencies: If you already have an Agency Account, you still have access to that account free-of-charge until the end of the month. If your account is not re-activated before then, your account will be deleted and re-activating it will require payment on a monthly or annual basis.For large agencies: We will no longer be providing Beacon free of charge to high-volume agencies whose accounts are currently inactive. To discuss pricing and re-activate your account, please contact us at [email protected]Why are we now charging for Beacon?
While we’re a non-profit organization and want to make this software available to as many agencies as possible for as low cost as possible, we have to ensure our own financial sustainability while working to keep costs low.

What does this mean for you?

• For small agencies: If you already have an Agency Account, you still have access to that account free-of-charge until the end of the month. If your account is not re-activated before then, your account will be deleted and re-activating it will require payment on a monthly or annual basis.
• For large agencies: We will no longer be providing Beacon free of charge to high-volume agencies whose accounts are currently inactive. To discuss pricing and re-activate your account, please contact us at [email protected]

Why are we now charging for Beacon?

While we’re a non-profit organization and want to make this software available to as many agencies as possible for as low cost as possible, we have to ensure our own financial sustainability while working to keep costs low.

Special Thanks

Beacon v4.0 was made possible thanks to the hard work of:

• William Prescott
• Micaiah Skolnick
• Brennan Smith
• Yazan Khalaileh
• Marissa Simons
• James Millard
• Ivan Barrios
• Zachary Sells

Raising funds for new technology as a non-profit has never been easy, so we’re deeply grateful to Twilio.org and Peery Foundation for their immense generosity and long-time support in making Beacon v4.0 possible.