Great idea instead of using pager, however does not work if phone is on low battery mode unless the app is open. Would be nice to read the page on your Apple Watch or in the banner versus having to open the app and click the message every time as Well.
We switched from physical pagers to Spok when I started residency in 2017. Fast forward to now, this app has remained essentially unchanged, getting updates to make sure it remains functional with iOS updates, but nothing more. It feels like an app that was designed before the original iPhone even came out. It is clunky, has a terrible UI, and seems to function worse now than when I first had to use it (e.g., you are supposed to be able to tap phone numbers within a page to easily call, but this either doesn’t work now or you have to tap multiple times for the call prompt to come up). It’s just an embarrassment and they likely have no real incentive to improve it because huge healthcare systems often don’t want to switch to a new system.
Once a week it seems it won’t log in. Spins over and over saying it’s attempting to sign in but never actually completes. Currently have two pages that I haven’t been able to see all day. There has to be a bug fix that can be done but there’s never any updates?? Current error/sign in issue has had my locked out of the app for a week now. Cmon. We need an app update to fix this
I would love to see Apple Watch support for this. It would be great when my hands are busy at work but I want to quickly read the page on my watch screen instead of having to stop and pull out my phone
Current facility uses this. Reliably unreliable. “Oh if you are in house, you need to be OFF wifi in order for it to work”. Ah. But I have no network connectivity at all then. Luckily coworkers alerted me by sms text that I was about to be paged- I saw it flash and disappear on screen. Only sounds off if you MANUALLY open app. So be prepared to have your phone open in front of your face at all times for the 24 hours you are on call.
The app works, but it would be nice if I could delete the message within the message. Really makes no sense at all that I have to come out of the message to delete the message. Oh yeah and a delete all messages button. I am beginning to think my pager is better.
Overall this app is useful and has allowed me to stop carrying an additional physical pager. Few suggestions: 1. On/off button, currently no way to “power off” your pager, thus I have had to uninstall the app when I’m not on service. 2. No way to view who is on call for a service, would be much more useful to start pages if it had built in on call directory functionality All in all though dependable app to replace your pager, which is great!
It’s nice to not carry a pager around but man this app is poorly made. My biggest complaint is that the notifications do not repeat. In that regard it’s actually worse than the pager my hospital uses that’s from the 1980s.
Have had issues getting notifications on my iPhone for any pages, forcing me to have to carry my physical pager around and making the app functionally useless. Have verified that the notifications from Spok are set to critical in my phone settings and still getting absolutely nothing until I open the app
Missing basic functionality - receive a message with a phone number, I should be able to either 1. Tap on the number and choose whether to call or text message the number on my native phone app, or copy and paste any number or text in the message.
This app is trash. Seems to be stuck in the past with absolutely no updates. Interface is horrible, it doesn’t work if you’re connected to CarPlay… to mention a few of its problems. I would never use it if I have another option. it has absolutely no advantages over a physical PAGER.
What’s the point of a paging app that you have to open the app to actually get the page? I’m on call at my job for a week at a time and have to set reminders on my phone to check the app to see if I received any pages because otherwise you don’t get notified
Started using this app as our HIPPA compliance for paging. Works well in general bit for an app used continuously throughout a busy day it has some issues: • Limited/odd pager tones-please allow use of system tones or custom tones. Only the "pager" tone is a pager type tone. • No vibrate alert options • Alert tone sounds AGAIN upon opening app, Often louder than original tone-why do I need the app to alert again more loudly when I'm opening app to see page • PIN login should have option for number pad entry for ease of entering digit only pins. • HIPPA fail. When resuming app or if switching apps via multitasking, the app (or the preview) displays current pages without requiring pin momentarily before requiring pin. In fact if you are using the multitasking menu you can view pages indefinitely w/o pin.
Reliable paging app but could definitely use a mute button that syncs with system mute settings. Also when page is received it interrupts phone call and rings loud in the ear which is very annoying. Please fix the bugs!
I registered my email/device and receive an email confirming this registration, but when I login with the same email address and the password emailed to me, I get a “Registration Error: The registration cannot be completed at this time. Please try again.”
My hospital uses this for on call physicians- it barely works for the most important messages. App glitches when you try to open it. It’s a patient safety issue. No one ever seems to know how to fix it. Do not buy buy for any real use.
It is so hard to click phone numbers when paged as of the last update. Myself and coworkers have spent so much time clicking rapidly trying to get it to trigger.
The pages have stopped pushing, so I only receive them when I open the app, and sometimes not even then. This is unacceptable for a medical paging system.
I wish I could only give 0 stars. What’s the purpose of a pager that doesn’t ring? It only rings when I open the app. Other than that my phone just vibrates!? What a pathetic excuse for a paging app.
This app is very rudimentary in its design. I believe the app is dangerous if it is used for critical communication. It seems to be unstable and erratic. I was trying to use it as a hospital page system. Foolishly, The app does not require a 10 digit phone number to be input for paging, and I most commonly get a five digit number and have no idea what to do with it as the US phone system is now a 10 digit system. The app also allows paging from a computer and the user cannot tell the difference if he or she has been paged from a computer or from a phone. If one responds to such a computer messsge with a written reply the written reply does not go to the computer, completely undermining the two-way communication aspect. I have received angry phone calls asking why I am not responding to spok messages. I go to the app and find out that it has turned itself off once again and there is a backlog of pages sometimes weeks or months long. In my opinion, this app should only be used for non-important communication. Perhaps it is a good app for teenagers who want a new way to communicate. Certainly it is not ready for business application.
This app has many glaring flaws as pointed out in other reviews. I would add that the interface is primitive and not in keeping with the aesthetics of the new iOS. Also it requires many useless taps to call back a number. Page loading is slow. Ringtones that are provided natively with the app are all designed to give the user a heart attack. They are very annoying and extremely loud at the lowest setting. App requires login every single time I need to use it for sending messages. Although this might have more to do with the institutional settings than the app itself. The problem with these kind of apps is that the makers of these apps have very little incentive to improve their product based on user feedback because unfortunately the end user has no say in adoption of one app vs the other enterprise wide. That decision is made by the institutional IT folks who don't have to use these products like us end users.
What bothers me about this app is that there's no way to change the sound level for incoming pages. It's either deafeningly loud to the point that it startles people around you, or you have to go through the internal iPhone settings to turn off the sound notification completely!! The default ringtones for some reason just sound wayyyy louder than the native iPhone ringtone for texts and emails. I wish we could adjust the sound level of the spok alert tones. And speaking of the spok alert tones why are they all so awful???? None of them are the least bit pleasant sounding. And why isn't there an option to have the page alert be just a vibrate option? This app could have been so amazing and game changing but it just makes paging more of a hassle. Please include a way to customize the alerts and sounds!!!!
I use this app as the go to paging app at the hospital that I work at. It is great! I now don't even carry my pager because this app is so reliable. A couple of things that I would like to see in the new updates... #1. A way to see the number that I'll need to return the page from the lock screen. Same feature request for the Apple watch. It is annoying that all I can do on the Apple watch is dismiss the notification, I still have to pull out my phone unlock the phone to go to the app to get to the number that I need to call back. The experience would be much better if I can see the number for the lock screen / Apple watch notification. #2. A way to mute the page from the lock screen #3. A way to change the setting page so that when I open up the app, I am automatically in the list of most recent pages rather than have to hit 'Back' a gazillion times to get back to the listing page. That's all for now. It's a pretty sweet app, but I think with a few tweaks, it can be an amazing app.
This is clearly the worst app I have on my phone. It does not take into account how a person actually uses messaging, as though the programmers never used texting or WhatsApp. One. When it notifies you of a message, it does not download in the background. Rather, it requires you to acknowledge a message, go to the app before even starting to download. Then, it spends several more seconds downloading the message. A real time waster. Two. If you do not do acknowledge the message, it notifies you again but instead of showing one message, it keeps increasing the number count of messages until you acknowledge it. This means put a single message can look like ten message on the icon. Three. The most recent iOS update broke the app, requiring deleting the app, shutting down iPhone, and reinstalling. Four. Main screen shows only one line of text, too little information to read most messages. This forces you to click the message to read it, then click back to see the rest of the messages. Wasted steps. Five. Ou cannot copy any text from messages. Six. You cannot forward messages.
Having worn a pager as a medical professional for the last 15 years - It’s rather ridiculous that they can’t do better and are in fact worse. Was really excited about this but now I am still wearing my pager as SPOK is unreliable, slow, does not alert u if ur phone is locked (aren’t all our phones locked), I have to take my mask off to access into my phone, I can send a message out but it’s not linked to my name (but u search for people by their name - so why can’t it identify the messenger) and the very worst part - it’s supposed to help decrease unsecured text messages but if u send a message to a team - if one team member responds- it only sends it back to the sender and not the whole team. I mean come on it’s 2020. Figure it out
The Spok Mobile app just keeps getting better. It provides our clinicians with secure texting which is what it's supposed to do. Some of the more critical reviewers may not realize that certain features such as ringtone, page alert repeat and so on are customizable within the app settings. Others might care to know that certain requested functionality is totally dependent upon Apple making that feature available to the Spok developers or any software developers. Keep up the good work Spok Team!
It's a great idea to reduce the number of devices you need to carry. However, Pages aren't pushing to the phone with the new iO7 platform. The only way to see or hear pages is to open the app. This is not only bit ideal but unacceptable in acute care medicine area. Not being able to make yourself unavailable when the paging system is connected to your phone is silly! Also, there is not a vibrate option, only sound. The two good things about the system is it used to push pages faster than on a regular pager. If a 7 digit call back number is included you can click the link and quickly respond. Hopefully AMCOM will fix these issues and make the app more functional.
I appreciate the developers of this product because I don't want to have to carry a phone and a pager. Plus, the information is ? HIPAA protected. I wish that the option to see the oncall system for my institution, as well as the option to login to paging system was able to be controlled from the app. I hope for more alert tone options. Also, are you planning to develop an apple watch app? This way I could look at my page message without having to go to the phone.
When I upgraded from my old iPhone 5 to a new iPhone 6 plus, the Spōk app suddenly stopped working — it simply quit upon opening. But I discovered that the app worked perfectly after I deleted it and reinstalled it from the App Store. Apparently, there is some sort of bug that renders the app useless after upgrading the phone and restoring the data from an old phone. And while the company needs to fix this bug, my workaround solve the problem and made to the app functional once again.
If this app wasn't required by healthcare organizations, it would be a dismal failure. It is in dire need of customization. The new update is horrible. As someone who receives upwards of 40 pages per day, I don't need profile pictures and texts that take up half the screen. I need a streamlined interface. I also need the options to work. As in ios 8, this thing pings me infinitely every 30 seconds until I open the app to look at it. Not a great thing in the middle of a patient encounter. Add to that the fact that right now the whole system is down at our institution. If you are an enterprise looking at adopting this system, look elsewhere. It is broken and poorly implemented.
First off, I disagree with prior criticism on not showing the message body in the Notification center. We use this in a health care environment and there would be obvious privacy concerns if the message text were visible. App does a good job of notification and communications. Very reliable. Have had no issues with this version. I would like to see: 1) Override for Silent and Vibrate options. We are using to replace pagers; but at night time when my phone is in silent so are my alerts. 2) The ability to chose alert tones from the Phone / iTunes store rather than just limited to what comes in the app itself. 3) The ability to force the use of the PIN number by the site administrator for privacy / HIPPA concerns. Good app but the addition of the above features will make it great.
One of the biggest problems for me is that there is only one tone and one volume for the pager and they cannot be changed. If I put it on silent, I can’t always hear or feel it vibrate-additionally if it vibrates, I feel like patients think I’m looking at texts. The tone is really obnoxious and VERY loud. You also have to unlock your phone to stop it, and then in beeps again until you “close” the page. It would be a lot better if the volume and tone could be customized like a regular pager. It would also be better if it the sound be turned off more easily to not disturb patient interactions.
I get so annoyed with this app. I understand some of the hipa issues and that is fine. However, why when I open it with a new incoming page does it take me to the last page I had opened. I saw that page already. You then have to close out of prior pages and click on the new page. While it may only take a few extra seconds it's such a waist. My email app is so much smarter. It should also let you customize vibration tones and why is there 3 levels of page priority type. Two, I can understand but three is just stupid. I could go on....
This application allows the hospital to page me without carrying a pager and include text messages. There is no way to answer other than by phone, however. I have to sign in almost every time, usually with my fingerprint. The notification tones range from awful to painful with no way to adjust the volume. They invite cursing. Just like the awful pagers, this will wake you up with a shock. Nothing ever changes with each subsequent version.
That's all that really needs to be said. If you cannot rely upon the app to convey a page in a timely manner, there is no point in having the app. I have had to delete and reinstall Multiple times with continued issues with the app notifying me of incoming pages. All setting are correct for notifications. I would go to check the app to be sure it is working only to the. Receive multiple pages. Terrible application. Conceptually, I loved the idea of shedding my pager. However, I am deleting this app for the final time and returning to a pager for its consistent reliability in every situation.
This morning I unlocked my phone and it started going nuts with page noises. Sounds great, but the pages were 6 hours old from a very concerned and anxious patient. After she got tired of waiting for me to call back she just went to the emergency room and got admitted. The notifications don’t reliably come through unless the phone is unlocked. That’s a fatal flaw for an emergency response system. Needs a fix now. Also, needs to be able to alert audibly when the phone is on silent mode, which it can’t do. Stick to your pager.
I need my pager to reliably alert me when I have a message. That means repeating alerts until I respond and consistently alerting me when there is a new message. Thus app fails on both counts. The "number of repeats" setting is an illusion. I only get one alert. And the notification method is hit or miss, sometimes only vibrating when I should be getting sound, sometimes no alert at all. Restarting the iPhone seems to fix temporarily. I will be asking for pages to come via SMS text until this is fixed.
This application is a really good secure messaging tool connecting a corporate messaging infrastructure to hundreds or thousands of end-users. It leverages existing corporate directories and protects the information with end-to-end encryption as well as protection of the data at rest. Extremely valuable in healthcare because it protects against HIPAA violations for disclosure of PHI.
Spok Mobile™ is a critical messaging / alerting application for use in healthcare, government, and public safety environments. Some functionality requires a subscription / connection to a supported Spok system.
