For organisations
Deciding for a group, not just using it yourself.
Written for whoever decides an association, school, church youth group or camp adopts Buzzbelt, then has to defend that decision to a safeguarding lead, then has to get it onto thirty phones. Buzzbelt is mid-build — every claim below says plainly whether it's true today or still planned, because a safeguarding answer is the wrong place to round up.
The one-page case
Reach your whole group when there is no signal.
Thirty teenagers spread out the moment you arrive somewhere — two in a shop, four across the square, one behind you. Abroad, most of their phones have no data; the ones that do lose it to a roaming cutoff within days. A group chat that needs the internet is a group chat that works at home and stops at the border, which is why walking the square twice and sending someone to fetch the stragglers is still how most trips actually run.
Buzzbelt's phones talk to each other directly over Bluetooth — no internet, no SIM, no roaming, no server anywhere. A leader gets a group chat, a full-volume "buzz" that gathers everyone at once even from a locked phone in a pocket, and a live count of who is actually within reach — never a confident number when the true answer is "we don't know." See how it works and what it does for the detail.
Free, with no account and no in-app purchase. Built by Aralel GmbH, Aachen, Germany.
What it is not
-
Not a locator. No location permission, no map, no way to get one. "Reachable" means two phones can hear each other over Bluetooth — nothing more.
-
Not an emergency system. If somebody is genuinely missing, call them, then the emergency services. A name showing reachable must never end a search.
-
Not a replacement for a headcount or your supervision policy. Buzzbelt makes an existing headcount faster. It replaces none of the count, the ratio, or the policy already governing the trip.
Safeguarding
What's protected today, and what's still planned.
Two rows below are true today and can be stated to a safeguarding lead without qualification. The rest describe the product this page is pitching, on a timeline this page does not control — say "this ships with a future release" and mean it, not a date.
| Protection | Status | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| No location tracking of any kind | Live now | The app requests Bluetooth permissions only. There is no location permission anywhere in it to be persuaded into using. |
| No data leaves the devices | Live now | There is no server in this product's architecture — not "unused today," but none exists to send data to. No analytics, no crash reporting, no account system. |
| Works on Android and iPhone | Live now | Android 12 and later, and iPhone, both with their own Bluetooth transport. A mixed-platform group is the normal case, not a special one. |
| Groups are closed and invite-only | Planned — Step 6 | Not true of the current build. Today, opening the app on a phone in Bluetooth range of others running it puts that phone straight into one shared conversation — no join step, no boundary. Do not demonstrate this as working. |
| Strangers cannot see or contact members | Planned — Step 6 | Follows from the row above. Without a group boundary, being in Bluetooth range is enough to see and message everyone in it today. |
| Leader controls membership and can remove anyone | Planned — Step 7 | Today's roster has a "Remove" action, but it only declutters the leader's own list — the removed person is still fully part of the conversation and reappears the moment their phone is in range again. |
| Leader announcements are signed, and messages are encrypted | Planned — Step 7 | No cipher exists anywhere in the message transport today. A signed announcement is only ever produced by test fakes, never a real phone. Anyone in Bluetooth range can read a message in plain text. |
| Groups expire at trip end | Not yet planned | No design or mechanism exists anywhere for this. Before it's promised to any organisation it needs a real decision — what "trip end" means without a server to enforce a clock, and what happens to on-device history when it fires. |
Full detail on every "live now" limit — range, battery, who can actually read a message today — is on the honest limits page. Read it before adopting, not after.
Deployment, today
What actually happens at the coach door.
The closed, QR-code-join flow described above as Planned — Step 6 is not what ships today. This is: install the night before, open the app, pick a name. Full detail, including the group-boundary caveat, is on the setup page — this is the short version for a deployment decision.
-
The night before — everyone installs the app
The only step that needs the internet. Check it at the gate rather than assume it.
-
Everyone opens it and picks a name
That's the whole join today — no code, no group creation, no boundary yet.
Fact sheet
For the procurement conversation.
| Platforms | Android 12 (API 31) and later, and iPhone — both available now. |
|---|---|
| Price | Free. No account, no subscription, no in-app purchase — there is no billing infrastructure in the app at all. |
| App language | English only, today. There is no localisation infrastructure yet, so this is a real limit, not an oversight. |
| Requirements | A phone with Bluetooth Low Energy — standard on anything from roughly the last five years. No SIM, no data plan, no account. Installing the app is the one moment that needs the internet. |
| Battery | Noticeable drain — the radio keeps listening even with the app in a pocket. No measured hours-of-life figure exists yet; plan for a power bank on a long day, not a number. |
| Operator | Aralel GmbH, Aachen, Germany. Registered with Amtsgericht Aachen — see the Impressum. |
Next step
Talk to us before you commit thirty phones to it.
Read the honest limits and the safeguarding table above with whoever signs off on safeguarding for your organisation — it's written to survive that reading, not to be summarised past it. Questions after that: buzzbelt@aralel.com, or see support.