Zello for Street Medics

A protester, bloodied by a blow from a policeman's club, needs to communicate to an organizer that the authorities have begun using force. A few blocks away, the organizer wipes tear gas from his eyes and wants to signal to his group to fall back. Rather than using shouts or even traditional walkie-talkies, both pull out their smartphones.

Welcome to modern civil disobedience: Rising up against your government? There's an app for that.

Of all the available group chat apps, Zello is credited with helping protesters across the globe organize and communicate, much as Twitter and Facebook did during the Arab Spring in 2010. Zello was the most popular app on the App Store and Google Play for several days in Ukraine before it began topping the charts in Venezuela. Reports from sources from NPR to Quartz extolled its developers' work to evade blocks put in place by Venezuela's state-run mobile service provider.

What is Zello?

Zello is an instant communication, push-to-talk live voice app that can be downloaded on a smartphone. Similar to walkie-talkies, the app allows for easy, chat room style communication between users or with a larger group of people through channels. Unlike standard calls, the app requires an internet connection either through a service provider or Wi-Fi, and connects users across the world.

Private voice messages on the app are end-to-end encrypted — meaning they are protected to prevent data from being read or secretly changed by anyone other than the users in conversation.

However, public channels that allow people to share messages in a large group are not encrypted. You can however password-protect a channel to limit access.

What was Zello made for?

Zello can be used for many different reasons depending on the user’s intentions. Originally, the app was “built for the frontline,” Zello’s website reads, but can be used by everyone.

Zello is used often by construction workers, truck drivers, taxi and delivery dispatchers and others in construction and transportation industries. The app is also used by first responders to locate and communicate over a clear connection that has no decrease in audio quality despite distances.

When has Zello been used before?

With the app’s simple interface and immediate correspondence Zello has been useful in past events.

During the 2014 Venezuelan protests under Nicolás Maduro, Zello was widely used to communicate and organize protests. While it was blocked by CANTV, a state-run service provider, Zello issued patches to bypass the blocks to support about 600,000 Venezuelans who downloaded the app. Zello was also the most downloaded app in Turkey during the 2013 protests, used to circumvent government censors. In 2022, multiple Zello channels have popped up as a tool for organizing the “freedom convoy” protests or blockades, across Canada.

During hurricanes Harvey and Florence in 2017 and 2018, Zello was a popular mode of communication to contact those stranded in floods.

PNW Street Medics creates a Zello channel for group communication when supporting urban actions (where cellular / WiFi connectivity is available). We recommend adding the Zello app to your smartphone, both as a means of communicating between street medics working in the field, and for having another communications channel to stay in touch with your friends, family, and support groups.


References

What is Zello? Inside the app that helped organize “freedom convoy” blockades (2/11/2022)
(https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/what-is-zello-inside-the-app-that-helped-organize-freedom-convoy-blockades/article_44acd901-5c1d-5df3-bfd5-664edc0aaa4b.html)

Communications During An Uprising: From Zello To Walkie-Talkies In Venezuela And Ukraine (3/17/2014)
(https://www.ibtimes.com/communications-during-uprising-zello-walkie-talkies-venezuela-ukraine-1561743)

Comms At Blackline - Zello and UHF Working Together (2/20/2020)
(https://www.blacklinesimulations.com/post/comms-at-blackline-zello-and-uhf-working-together)

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