Frequently asked questions

They're the same platform with different branding: iFire for fire and rescue crews, iCrew for RNLI and independent lifeboat crews, and iRescue for HM Coastguard and other voluntary rescue teams. Use whichever your station uses — if you're starting fresh, pick the one that matches your service.

Download the app free from the App Store or Google Play and sign in with your email. We send a 4-digit code to verify it, so there's no password to remember in the app.

If your station admin has invited you, use the email address the invitation went to and you'll be added to the station straight away. If not, ask them to invite you from the Station Dashboard.

There are two ways to join.

• With an email invitation. Your station admin invites you from the Crew page of the Station Dashboard. Install the app and sign in with the email address the invitation was sent to, and you're added to the station. If you already belong to another station, you'll be asked to accept first, using the link in the email. Invitations last 14 days, and your admin can resend one at any time.
• With an invite code. If your admin gives you a code instead, tap Have an invite code? in the app and enter the 6-digit code (it looks like 123-456). Codes expire after 48 hours, so ask for a fresh one if yours doesn't work.

New stations are set up on the Station Dashboard, on a computer or tablet, not in the app. Whoever sets the station up becomes its first admin, adds the station's details and invites the crew by email. Each crew member installs the app, signs in with the email address the invitation went to, and is added to the station automatically.

Every new station gets a 30-day free trial covering the whole crew, with no card needed. We're opening the dashboard to stations now. Get in touch and we'll get yours started.

Yes — mobilisation alerts override silent mode and play at full volume with a pager-style tone, the same way a pager would.

Check notification permission is granted (Android 13+ asks separately), the app is excluded from battery optimisation, and the alert hasn't been muted in the app's notification settings.

Yes — Follow Crew lets you pick individual crew members and get a push when their availability changes at your station.

Included with a station subscription, and during your station's 30-day free trial. If your station already used the app before September 2026, nothing changes before 31 January 2027: anyone who has it today keeps it.

The app can warn you when available crew at your station drops below the level you need — including per-skill thresholds, so you know when you're short a driver rather than just short a body. Station admins and line managers can also get a push when live crew drops below one of the station's crewing rules.

Included with a station subscription, and during your station's 30-day free trial. If your station already used the app before September 2026, nothing changes before 31 January 2027: anyone who has it today keeps it.

Yes, in the next app update. We can't put a button on your car's screen, because Apple and Google only allow certain kinds of app there. So we've done the next best thing on each phone:

• iPhone: say "Hey Siri, iFire I'm responding" (or iCrew, or iRescue). It works with the phone in your pocket, over CarPlay or your car's Bluetooth, and marks you as responding at your station. There's nothing to set up.
• Android: in Settings > Notifications settings > In the car, choose Ask me or Automatically. If your phone connects to your car's Bluetooth within 20 minutes of a callout, the app either pops up a notification with the answer buttons, or marks you as responding by itself. It only happens once per callout, so the drive to work later doesn't count. Android asks for the "Nearby devices" permission so the app can tell it's your car.

Answers from the car count the same as answers from the app, and show in your station's responding log.

Yes. Geofencing notices as you cross your station's area and offers the matching status change, which you confirm with a single tap on the notification.

From the next app update you can also switch on Auto change status in the Geofencing settings. The app then changes your status for you and sends a notification saying it has. If it can't, it asks you instead. It's off unless you turn it on.

Geofencing works out which side of your rings you're on, on your phone. It doesn't send your location to us or to your station. It needs "Always" location permission to work in the background.

Included with a station subscription, and during your station's 30-day free trial. If your station already used the app before September 2026, nothing changes before 31 January 2027: anyone who has it today keeps it.

No — it uses the phone's built-in region monitoring (the same low-power system as location-based reminders), not continuous GPS tracking. The trade-off is that crossings can take a minute or two to register.

When a callout comes in you tell your station whether you're coming. There are three answers: I'm responding, Responding but delayed and I'm not responding. Your whole crew sees who's on the way before the appliance or boat leaves, on the app, on the Station Dashboard and on the crew-room Crew board. You can change to On scene when you get there.

From the next app update you can answer straight from the callout notification, without opening the app.

Behind the scenes:

• The responding log. Every answer is recorded with its time, so station admins can see on the dashboard who answered each callout and when.
• Stand down. An admin can stand a callout down from the dashboard. The station gets a "Stood down" notification, and anyone who answers "responding" after the stand down is shown in red in the log.
• Your location is shared with your station only while you're responding, so they can see you on the en-route map. It stops when your responding status clears.

Set a weekly availability target and the app tracks your Available hours against it, with progress notifications at 50%, 75% and 100%.

Included with a station subscription, and during your station's 30-day free trial. If your station already used the app before September 2026, nothing changes before 31 January 2027: anyone who has it today keeps it.

Both are there to stop your status going stale, so nobody is shown as available while they're asleep or away.

• "How long are you available for?" When you book on, the app asks how long for: a few hours, or until a set time. When the time's up it books you off, or gives you a nudge to do it yourself, whichever you prefer. It's on for everyone unless your station turns it off. You can turn it off for yourself in Settings.
• Status checks. At set times of day, 08:00 and 20:00 unless you choose others, you get a notification telling you what you're currently set to, so you can fix it if it's wrong. A station admin switches status checks on for the crew from the Station Dashboard. You can turn them off, or pick your own times. You're never asked about an hour your planned availability already covers.

The app settings for both, and the "Until" or "Back at" time at the top of the app, come with the next app update.

Yes. The next app update adds a Calendar tab, which shows your month at a glance. Days you're unavailable, on leave or training are shaded, and part days are underlined. Tap any day to change it.

• Book time off books a whole stretch in one go, from a first to a last day or between exact times, as unavailable, leave or training.
• Set my rota fills in your calendar from a regular pattern, such as four on and four off, up to a year ahead. You choose your hours on and off, and see a preview before anything is saved. Leave you've already booked is kept unless you ask for it to be replaced.

Station admins can set rotas for the crew on the Station Dashboard using duty patterns. Leave you book shows as leave on the dashboard's availability planner, so your station knows you're away rather than just unavailable.

The iFire, iCrew and iRescue apps are free to download. Stations are licensed per station: one subscription covers every crew member, with every feature in the app and the Station Dashboard included.

• Monthly: £1 per active crew member per month, minimum £10 a month.
• Annual: £10 per active crew member per year, minimum £100 a year. That's two months free.

For example, a station with 14 active crew pays £14 a month or £140 a year. There's no VAT to add, no setup fees and no add-ons.

Every station gets a 30-day free trial first, with no card needed. Stations that used the app before September 2026 have until 31 January 2027 before they need to subscribe. Why we moved to station subscriptions →

No. iFire, iCrew and iRescue are free to download on the App Store and Google Play.

Your station pays for iOnCall through a station subscription, which covers every crew member and every feature in the app and the Station Dashboard. Every station starts with a 30-day free trial, with no card needed. Prices start at £10 a month. How station pricing works →

Someone who has used the app or changed their own status in the last 60 days, or who joined the station in the last 60 days.

Everyone else is free. That includes crew who are away, dormant members and leavers, so you never need to remove people who might still need a callout. A status set on someone's behalf doesn't make them active, whether it was set by an admin, a line manager, a duty pattern, planned availability or an automatic book-on.

Yes. Every station gets a 30-day free trial covering the whole crew and every feature, with no card needed and no obligation to continue. It's one per station.

A new station's trial starts when you set the station up on the Station Dashboard. A station already using the app can start its trial whenever it likes, as long as it has never trialled or subscribed before: a station admin starts it from the Billing page.

Want a hand getting started? Get in touch.

Callouts are never locked. Even with no active subscription, these all keep working:

• mobilisation alerts and answering them
• status updates
• the station overview and the crew list
• crew invitations

What pauses until you renew are the planning and compliance tools (availability planning, crewing rules and duty patterns), crewing alerts and the extra app features. Station admins get email reminders before a trial or grace period ends, and can renew at any time from the Billing page of the Station Dashboard.

New crew are charged from when they join. On a monthly plan the extra appears on your next invoice. On an annual plan it's invoiced straight away, unless it's under £5, in which case it's added to your renewal.

If your crew gets smaller, the lower price applies from your next renewal. We don't refund or credit part-way through a term.

Existing stations have until 31 January 2027, and everything works as it does today until then. Your station admins will get email reminders as the date gets closer, and can start a subscription, or the 30-day free trial, from the Billing page of the Station Dashboard.

If your station already has a station subscription, you keep your current plan for now. We'll be in touch before anything changes.

It keeps working for as long as it's active, and you keep your extras. We're no longer selling new personal subscriptions.

Once your station subscribes, everyone on the station gets every feature, so you can cancel your personal subscription in your App Store or Google Play account settings. Restore purchases is still in the app if you change phones.

On Amazon Web Services in London, under UK GDPR. That covers the database, the servers, backups and the images the apps use, including profile photos and station logos.

A few specialist services we use handle data elsewhere, for example Firebase for push notifications. Our privacy policy lists them.

Only these people, and only at these times:

• While you're responding to a callout, your position is shared with your own station so they can see you coming: crew in the app, people signed in to your station's Station Dashboard (on the en-route map), and any crew-room screen a station admin has paired to show the responders map. Sharing stops when your responding status clears, and the trail from a finished callout is deleted soon afterwards.
• Geofencing works out which side of your station's rings you're on, on your phone. Your location isn't sent to us or to your station; only the status change is.
• The ordinary Crew board link never shows anyone's location, only names and availability.

Nobody outside your station can see where you are, and we don't keep a history of where you've been. You can turn location off for the app at any time in your phone's settings. Callouts still reach you, but your station won't see you on the map.

From the next app update you can add a profile photo. The app lets you crop it to your face before it's uploaded.

• In the app, your photo can be seen by you and by people at the stations you belong to.
• On the crew-room Crew board, it only appears if you switch on Show on the crew board. Nobody else can switch that on for you, not even an admin. Until you do, the board shows a plain icon.
• Station admins can add or change a photo for a member of their station, for example to put up a set of crew headshots. Only you can put it on the board.

Photos are stored in our database in London, not on a public website. If you remove your photo, it's gone from the app and the board straight away. If you delete your account, your photo is deleted with it.

You can delete your account from the app's settings at any time. A station admin can also remove a member's account. When an account is deleted:

• Your personal data is deleted: your profile and photo, every station membership, your availability and status history, your responding history and positions, and your devices and sign-in records.
• Records your station keeps are anonymised: chat and callout messages stay so the station's history still makes sense, but they show as from a "Former member" and can't be linked back to you.
• Billing records are kept, as the law requires for tax and refunds: App Store and Google Play receipts, and the station's own billing.

Full details are on our delete account page.

The Crew board is a live page made for the TV in your crew room. It shows:

• who's on call, grouped by role, with when they're available until or back;
• whether you're ready to respond (or, for lifeboats, ready to launch), checked against your crewing rules, for each boat or appliance and for the station as a whole;
• during a callout, who's responding, delayed or on scene, and a clock counting up from the page.

It updates by itself the moment anything changes.

To put it on a TV, a station admin opens the Station Dashboard, goes to Station settings > Crew board screens and copies the board link. Open that link in the browser of any screen: a smart TV, a streaming stick, a small PC or an old laptop all work. Then make it full screen. There's a light and a dark look, switched with the button on the board.

The board link shows names and availability but never anyone's location. To show the live responders map on a screen, choose Pair for map on the board and have an admin enter the code it shows on the same Crew board screens card. Treat the link like a door code: keep it on the crew-room screen, not on social media.

The Crew board comes with the Station Dashboard at no extra cost. More about the Crew board →

Yes. iRescue works alongside HM Coastguard's Alerting and Tasking system. When a Coastguard Rescue Officer changes their status in iRescue, whether that's booking on or off or responding, delayed, on scene or not responding on a tasking, the app offers to send the matching update to Alerting and Tasking with one tap. It goes as a text from the officer's own phone, from the number Alerting and Tasking already knows. There are no codes to remember, and nothing to update twice. Nothing is sent without the officer confirming it.

A station admin switches it on for the team and adds the team's Alerting and Tasking number. iRescue is independent of HM Coastguard: Alerting and Tasking stays the official record, and iRescue just helps keep it up to date. Read how it works →

The Station Dashboard is a web application for running your station. It works in any browser on a computer or tablet. It covers:

• live crew availability, and availability planning up to 12 weeks ahead;
• crewing rules for each boat or appliance, with low-crew alerts;
• duty patterns and leave;
• callouts, with a live en-route map, a responding log and stand down;
• the Crew board for your crew-room TV;
• vehicles or lifeboats, events, crew hours and crew management.

Every crew member can sign in with the email address they use in the app. The first time, choose Get a one-time code: we email you a code, and you pick your password from there.

• Crew members see and update their own information.
• Line managers, chosen by each member, can also update availability for the crew who chose them.
• Station admins manage everything, including profiles, qualifications, crewing rules and billing.

Crewing rules tell iOnCall the fewest people you need on call. You set them on the Crewing rules page of the Station Dashboard, for the whole station and for each boat or appliance. For example: four crew including an officer in charge, a driver and two breathing apparatus wearers. Rules can apply all day or only at certain times and on certain days.

The availability planner then flags every hour you'll fall short. The Crew board shows whether you're ready, for each boat or appliance, and, with two boats, whether you can crew both at once. Station admins and line managers get a push if live crew drops below a rule.

Role ladders save you ticking the same person five times. Put your roles in training order, highest at the top, and each role counts as every role below it. So you only tick each person's highest role. A coxswain counts as boat crew and shore crew without those being ticked. Keep separate training, like tractor driving, on a ladder of its own. You can have more than one ladder.

You can also give roles your station's own names, such as the make of your launch tractor. They show on profiles, crewing rules, the Crew board and in the app.

Crewing rules are part of the station subscription and the free trial. How a lifeboat station sets them up →

Each crew member can choose a line manager at their station, in the app or on the Station Dashboard. It's your choice, and you can change it or clear it at any time. Your line manager can:

• update your availability, for example to book you on or off, or plan your weeks;
• see your availability history and your hours.

They can't edit your profile; only station admins can. Your history and hours are seen only by you and the line manager you chose, not by every admin.

On the Station Dashboard's Crew hours page, a line manager can Export the Available hours of the crew who chose them, week by week for up to 26 weeks, as a spreadsheet file. The export only ever holds what the page already shows them: their own hours and those of crew who chose them.

From the same page, Ask crew sends chosen members a notification inviting them to pick their line manager. It never picks anyone for them, and the same person is asked at most once a week.