Device Permissions Explained
A denied permission does not break the app - it quietly removes one capability, and the app will not always say which.
REDENES asks your phone for access to a handful of things. Some are requested during setup, the rest are requested by individual features the first time you use them. You can say no to any of them and the app still runs - but the feature that needed it will not. This page lists every permission, why it exists, and exactly what you lose.
REDENES states that your location data is used only by you and your agency. It is not sold, and it is not shared with third parties. Calendar syncing stays on your own phone.
Asked During Setup
Three permissions are requested during First Launch & Onboarding, because the app is close to useless without them.
| Permission | Why REDENES needs it | If you deny it |
|---|---|---|
| Push Notifications | To deliver dispatches, messages, and alerts even when the app is closed | You receive nothing until you open the app and look. This is the permission most likely to make you miss a call-out. |
| Critical Alerts | To sound urgent alerts even when your phone is silenced | Urgent dispatches still arrive, but silently. A phone on silent stays silent. |
| Location | To share your position with your agency and to power maps, navigation, and location-based alerts | Your position is not shared, the map cannot centre on you, bearings and tracking do not work, and location-based alerting cannot apply. |
Critical alerts are the reason the app can wake you at 3am. Choosing Allow While Using App for location, and allowing both notification permissions, is the configuration the app is designed around.
Asked by Features When You First Use Them
| Permission | Why REDENES needs it | If you deny it |
|---|---|---|
| Microphone | Voice messages, Push-to-Talk, audio streaming, and translation | You cannot transmit or record. You can still listen. |
| Camera | Scanning QR codes, photographing scenes, and reading the back of a US licence to fill forms automatically | The scanner will not open, photo capture fails, and auto-fill from a licence is unavailable. |
| Photos | Attaching existing pictures to messages, incidents, and forms, and saving captured images | You can only use photos taken in the moment, and saving images to your library fails. |
| Speech Recognition | Turning speech into text and text into speech, used by translation and voice entry | Dictation and spoken output stop; typing still works. |
| Bluetooth | Pairing radios, sensors, and accessories, and sharing data device to device | Connect a Device, Bluetooth Scan, and Bluetooth sharing cannot find anything. |
| Local Network | Talking to equipment on the same network, such as in-vehicle devices and local streams | Local devices and streams do not appear, even though they are on the network. |
| Motion | Capturing motion activity alongside GPS, and monitoring for a fall | Motion data is missing from GPS records and Fall Detection cannot monitor you. |
| Calendar | Syncing REDENES events with your phone's calendar, in both directions | Your phone calendar and the REDENES calendar stay separate; nothing else changes. |
| Contacts | Bringing your phone contacts into the app's directory and dialling features | You enter contact details by hand instead. |
Denying a permission is not permanent, and it is not a judgement. Turn one on the day you need the feature and leave the rest off if you prefer - the app asks again the next time a feature needs something it does not have.
What Each Permission Is Worth to You
If you want the smallest set of permissions that still leaves you operationally safe, this is the order to think about.
| Priority | Permissions | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Essential | Notifications, Critical Alerts | Without these you cannot be reliably dispatched |
| Strongly recommended | Location, Microphone | Accountability, mapping, and voice traffic |
| Useful | Camera, Photos, Bluetooth, Local Network | Evidence capture, scanning, and equipment |
| Optional | Calendar, Contacts, Speech, Motion | Convenience features with clear substitutes |
Fixing a Denied Permission
When a feature needs something you turned down, the app tells you rather than failing silently.
- A Permission Required message names what is needed, for example "Location Permission Denied - Please enable location permission in settings to use this feature."
- Tap the Settings button in that message. It opens the app's permission page in your device settings directly.
- Turn the permission on.
- Return to REDENES and retry the feature.
See Permission Required and App Permissions for the screens themselves.
Some features show an explanation card before the system prompt, titled after the permission - for example Allow Camera Permission - and describing exactly how that feature uses it. Read it; it is the clearest statement of why the app is asking.
How Your Agency Sees Your Permissions
Permission states are part of your device record. On Devices, an administrator can open a device and see each permission with a coloured dot.
| Dot | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 🟢 Green | Granted - always, when in use, or authorised |
| 🔴 Red | Denied or restricted |
| ⚪ Grey | Not determined or unknown |
Apple devices also report items such as Face ID, Siri, Focus, Tracking, and Local Network; other devices report things like do-not-disturb and battery optimisation instead.
Battery optimisation and focus modes are not REDENES permissions, but they can delay or suppress alerts just as effectively as denying notifications. If alerts arrive late rather than not at all, look there.
Related Pages
- App Permissions
- First Launch & Onboarding
- Permission Required
- Devices
- How Notifications Reach You
- Fall Detection
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