Pager Replacement Options / Pager Alternatives

What can I use instead of a pager?  Is there a modern version of a pager?

These are questions we hear often and we definitely have alternatives to the old school pager.  First you need to identify why you need a pager or pager type alternative in the first place and then our answer will be much clearer...

Many of our newest customers and about 35% of our existing customer base have made the move to virtual paging.

Virtual paging is where you have a separate pager phone number just as if you had a separate physical pager that you would carry on your belt but there is no physical pager.  You are notified via a pager app on the smartphone that you already carry.

The benefits are you do not need to carry a separate device, you still have a separate pager phone number for privacy and urgency reasons and you can set up a unique alert tone that can wake you up or get your attention.  So essentially everything a physical pager can do.  Plus a virtual pager app will receive anywhere you have either cell phone reception or WIFI reception which could potentially be world wide.

The only objections regarding virtual paging that we hear on a regular basis is that you can't pass a virtual pager around for whoever is on call and you can't set a pager on your bed stand and shut your phone off while sleeping....

ahhh, but you can...

The latest apps allow you to have the pager on as many phones as needed and whoever is on call will respond.  The other members of your team that are not on call can simply shut the app notifications off until they are back on call.  Not only that, but some of our apps allow you to set up escalation sequences between different subscribers so if your #1 tech doesn't respond within a preset number of minutes, your #2 tech can reply and if they don't respond, the alert can go #3 in line and so on.  This has come in handy for tech support on-call agents who work globally.

That leaves the alerts while sleeping.   This issue has been solved for iphone users, but not yet for android.   The Hypercare app allows audible notifications while your iphone is set to either silent or do not disturb so important pages will come through.

Not every situation can be solved by virtual paging, hence the demand for physical pagers, but in the majority of use cases, virtual paging or virtual paging in combination with a physical pager can solve most of our client requests.

So now you may ask...why should you purchase your pager app service through PagersDirect and not directly through the app developer?.  That's because as a retailer of the most popular pager apps, we have experience with the differences between each app, their abilities and what they can't do and can recommend the app that will work best for your situation.  Also, if you find one app isn't working for your needs, we can easily disconnect service on that app and start fresh with a different app without you needing to start a new business relationship and account with another app provider.

You can browse and order your pager app right here: https://pagersdirect.net/collections/virtual-paging

If you have any questions, feel free to call PagersDirect at 877-472-4370 ext 1 or better yet, text us using the text bar at the bottom of our website.