# "Waze for security guards": a walkie-talkie app only licensed guards can enter, riding on the founder's 400k students

> Source: https://stringers.io/en/apps/play_com.onsiren.html (Stringers / 什么值得做, generated 2026-11-08)
> Stringers answers one question every day: what small product can one or two people build in a few months and actually make money from. Numbers come from 15 databases we collect daily, each with source and date.
> For agents: these verdicts and the underlying databases (verified revenue, App Store / Google Play charts, ad libraries, GitHub, Product Hunt…) are queryable live over MCP — tools today / hot / products / directions / direction / data. Setup: https://github.com/komako-workshop/stringers (the user logs in at stringers.io → "配置 agent" to get a personal URL). Site index: https://stringers.io/llms.txt

> The founder's Get Licensed course trained over 400k security guards. With that cohort, an iPhone giveaway on launch night, and endorsements from a former MI5 department head, the app brought in a large crowd at once. The product fills the gap of "cross-employer, certified workers only."

[Mobile App](https://stringers.io/en/apps/index.md) · Android · written 11-6

OnSiren · OnSiren Limited

# "Waze for security guards": a walkie-talkie app only licensed guards can enter, riding on the founder's 400k students

**What it is** A free app for UK SIA-licensed security guards: verify your license and you get into the public channel for your area. Push-to-talk, one-tap incident reports, and an AI shift briefing.

**Why it took off** The founder's Get Licensed training school has trained over 400k guards. Using that cohort, a launch-night iPhone giveaway, and endorsement from a former MI5 director-level official, it got enough people online at once. The product filled the empty slot of "cross-employer, licensed-only."

**C** **How you could follow** If you hold a list of a licensed blue-collar group (a training school, a hiring platform, a certification app), copy "licensed-only, regional channels" into another country or trade, and agree with the list holder on a coordinated go-live moment.

C grade: the position is empty and no one in other countries is doing it, but the launch depended on an industry-wide student list and authority endorsement that ordinary followers can't get. It's still small (3,927 Play installs), and paid demand from firms hasn't been proven. What people in the niche are saying

Data (updated daily) · first launch 2026-08-16 · 11-07 installs 3,927

Android · Total installs worldwide

Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations). Google's detail page only refreshes install counts every other day, so a flat day doesn't mean nobody installed.

Over 50 million people in the UK hold an SIA security license. Most work alone, guarding one door or one shop, with peers at other companies down the street whom they don't know and can't reach. OnSiren pulls them onto one regional-channel walkie-talkie network. Three weeks after launch, its website claims 8,385 guards online. The product isn't hard to build. The hard part is getting the first group online at the same time, and it managed that because the founder already held a list of people in the industry.

### Two walkie-talkies, 22 years ago

Shahzad Ali wrote in his launch-day post about his first security shift: Securicor (later merged into G4S) sent him from north London to a Safeway in Portslade. When he got there they handed him two radios, one tied to the store and one to the whole street's "shopping district channel", so he could talk to people outside the shop. 22 years later, sitting in a Stanford class on power laws, he thought back to that second radio: what if you connected every guard on duty in the country? "Waze for security."

2026, Oct 14 17:45: OnSiren launched on the London Eye. In his blog post he wrote that day that "someone signed up every few seconds, and we'll probably hit 2,000 to 2,500 people today." Before launch, over 2,500 people had pre-registered (official press release).

### What it is

A free app, only for people with a valid SIA license. Install it, verify your license, claim a call sign, and you're in the public channel for your area.

- **Push-to-talk** : guards nearby can hear you. Speech is auto-transcribed, and Polish, Spanish, and Romanian are translated into English. In the homepage screenshot, 6 people are online on the London St James's channel.

- **One-tap incident reports** : pushed with location to guards around you. Police can also send "keep an eye out for this person" alerts to a specified area.

- **Alpha One** : before each shift, AI gives you a local briefing: what's happened nearby, the weather, and what to watch for.

- **Radio check** : lone workers check in on a schedule, and emergency contacts are notified if a check-in is missed.

Free for individuals. The money is supposed to come from firms: a team plan for security companies and venues at £6.99 per seat per month, minimum 5 seats, and another tier at £199 per seat per month. Police use it free. Shopping areas and local councils are quote-based (onsiren.com/business, 11-06). No paying customers are publicly disclosed yet.

### How well it's growing

The numbers are small but rising:

| Date | Google Play installs | UK Play Communication free chart |
|---|---|---|
| 10-29 | 3,346 | over 190 ratings |
| 11-01 | 3,429 | 81 |
| 11-03 | 3,713 | 70–80 thousand ratings |
| 11-06 | 3,927 | 87 |

Play gained 581 installs in the last 7 days. The App Store UK storefront has 28 ratings averaging 4.0, and the version number is still 0.5.1 (11-06). The website's "8,385 guards online" is more than double the Play install count, probably the combined registrations across both platforms, suggesting iPhone users may be the majority (inference). "1,970 channels" looks more like pre-drawn geographic zones than 1,970 channels with people actually talking (inference). The UK Communication free chart has a low bar, so the ranking tells us little.

### Where users come from

**The first source is Get Licensed.** Shahzad Ali founded Get Licensed 2007 years ago. It is one of the UK's largest security training and recruitment platforms, and its press release says it has "helped over 400k people become security guards." In other words, most licensed UK guards got their certificate or their job through it. Get Licensed's TikTok has 53k followers, and on launch day it posted a clip of handing a phone to a few doormen and a trainer: "One tap, and everyone in your area can hear you," with 2,178 views (TikTok, 11-06). The free 66-minute radio communication course on the OnSiren site is taught by Anthony Milner, who also hosts the Get Licensed podcast.

**第二是发布当天的抽奖。** 发布当天宣布,第一个在频道里发出语音的人送一部 iPhone 18 Pro。App Store 英区 10-14 当天的评论有一半在说这件事:「等了两个小时等 iPhone,结果比别人晚两分钟才能说话」;到 10-26 还有人打三星:「到现在也没公布谁中了」。这一招让几千人在同一时刻打开 App、按下对讲,冷启动那一晚频道里是有人的;代价是一批冲奖品来的一星差评。

**The third is personal endorsement.** The board chair is Lord Sarfraz. Among the non-executive directors is former MI5 director Lord Parker, and the team includes former SIA board member Steve McCormick. The CEO of the National Taskforce for the Night-Time Economy (NTIA) posted support on X, and trade magazine Professional Security 10-14 covered the launch. For an app that asks you to upload your license and expose your location, these names answer the question "can I trust it?"

**The fourth is offline.** A street team went around London talking to guards at their posts, handing out sweets, and spinning a prize wheel (10-31,787 views). The most-viewed video on the account (11-03,8,170 views) shows someone stopping a guard on the street to pitch OnSiren, only to find he'd already installed it. Play installs jumped 284 on 11-03, the biggest single day in this period.

No sign of paid ads: OnSiren's own TikTok has only 504 followers, and most videos get a few hundred views.

### Why guards are willing to install it

The most common line in App Store reviews is "I feel safer." Both five-star reviews were written by female guards: "Knowing everyone on the channel is connected, when something happens everyone knows." One doorman said: "Like Zello, but safer, and it can warn other guards about danger."

This is what sets it apart from what already exists:

| Existing options | What's missing |
|---|---|
| General walkie-talkie apps like Zello (120M Play installs) | Anyone can join, no identity check, no "guards nearby" |
| WhatsApp groups for guards | Same, with no map or walkie-talkie |
| Lone-worker apps like StaySafe and Peoplesafe, bought by employers | Only connects people in the same company |
| Disc, Auror, town shopping-area radios | Sold to shops and retailers, charged per store, covers only one shopping area |

The position "nationwide, cross-employer, licensed-guards-only" was empty before. The reason it was empty isn't technical. It's cold start: a walkie-talkie network with no one online is worthless, so you need an entry point the whole industry knows and trusts to bring people in all at once.

There are dissenting voices too. A one-star review says "the buttons aren't intuitive, it feels like a game, not a tool, with no reason to report incidents or check in," and others worry that the map exposes where people are working. The "Steel, Bronze, Silver, Gold" ranks it recently added (you level up by answering radio checks on time) look like an attempt to answer "why open it every day" (TikTok, 11-06).

### Who's following

Nothing found. No comparable nationwide guard network has been spotted outside the UK either. Few people outside the niche know about it. Almost nobody mentioned it on X in the last 60 days, and no tech media or VC writing has covered it.

### If it were you

**C: study the playbook, don't copy it.** The position is empty, but OnSiren can fill it because of something a follower can't get: an industry-wide list of practitioners, plus the endorsement that makes people willing to hand over their license. Without that, if you build the same product, your first night's channel has only you on it.

**Who it fits** : people who already hold access to a licensed blue-collar group, such as those running training schools, hiring platforms, certification apps, or industry communities, or who can strike exclusive deals with such organizations.

**Who it doesn't fit** : people who can only write code and hope the app store will organically build a network from scratch, or anyone planning to go head-to-head with OnSiren in the UK for guards. It already owns that group's trust.

**How to do it** : Copy the model in another country or job: licensed members only, channels split by area, works across employers. Australia, Ireland and US states all have security licences, and it also works for rideshare drivers, carers, or door staff. Partner first with whoever holds a list, have them send invites, and agree on a set time for everyone to go live together. The product does three things: verify licence, push-to-talk, one-tap incident report. AI briefings and translation come later.

**How to get users** : Almost entirely through the partner with the list: student emails, the end of the licence course, job-board pages. Run a "first person to press the button" stunt on launch night, pay out prizes on the spot and announce them publicly (OnSiren got bad reviews for this). After that, go out and find people on the street, and film videos of "he installed it ages ago" type reactions.

**When to go before** : No rush. OnSiren is UK-only for now and nobody else is in other countries. What you're waiting for is proof that organisations will pay.

**Signs you've read it wrong** : ① Within six months OnSiren publicly announces a paid rollout to a police force or a shopping district. That would show "free for individuals, paid for organisations" works, and the opportunity is bigger than grade C. ② Play installs stall below 5,000 before 2027 starts, or no new App Store reviews mention "safer" anymore. That means the network never took off, and a list or endorsements can't save a product people don't open every day. ③ A similar product from a training or recruitment firm appears abroad. That means the route is being noticed and the gap is closing.

[Android store page ↗](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onsiren)

**Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report**

Competitors

| Name | Where | Launched | Scale | How it differs from this one |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zello PTT Walkie Talkie | Android | About 2012 | 122M installs on Play (googleplay library) | General-purpose walkie-talkie app, no identity checks, no "nearby officers" zones, no intelligence layer |
| Disc Against Crime(Littoralis) | Web | 2010 era | Widely used by UK BIDs / business crime reduction partnerships, Secured by Design accredited | Charges businesses a membership fee, offers suspect files and exclusion lists, not a social walkie-talkie network for individual officers |
| Town Link / ShopWatch shopping-district radio | Other | Decades ago | Built locally by each town | Physical radios, paid per business, covers one district only. OnSiren is the free nationwide version on your phone. |
| Auror | Other | 2012 | Claims to connect 59k stores and 3,600 enforcement agencies | Sold to retailers' loss-prevention teams, not aimed at individual licensed officers who move between jobs |
| StaySafe / Peoplesafe / GuardTek / Sentriplex | iOS | various | UK lone workers / main security management B2B | Bought by employers, connects only that company's staff. OnSiren works across employers, and individuals can install it themselves. |
| WhatsApp groups for guards | Big-company features | — | The industry standard | No licence verification, no map zones, no radio translation or AI briefings |

Where users come from

- **Verified** **Founder's Get Licensed trainee pool and social channels** : The press release says Get Licensed has helped 400k+ people become security officers. @getlicensed on TikTok has 52,663 followers and has posted an OnSiren promo video. The Facebook page has also posted an OnSiren video.

- **Verified** **Pre-launch and launch event** : A launch event at the 10-14 London Eye, a TikTok countdown, 2,500 pre-registrations before launch, and the founder projected 2,000–2,500 sign-ups on launch day.

- **Verified** **industry authority and media backing** : former MI5 director Lord Parker serves as non-executive director, Lord Sarfraz as chairman, the NTIA CEO backs it on X, and Professional Security 2026-10-14 has covered it

- **Verified** **Facebook security groups and LinkedIn buzz** : Several officer Facebook groups have personal recommendation posts, security firm pages are sharing it, and industry people are posting about it on LinkedIn.

- **Verified** **Street promotion offline** : OnSiren's TikTok videos show handing out sweets and using a prize wheel to stop security officers on the street (8,170 views, its top video).

- Inferred **Paid acquisition** : None found. Its own TikTok has only 504 followers, and it isn't in the Meta ad library.

## Why OnSiren (com.onsiren) took off

> Channel: Google Play (UK) | Developer OnSiren Limited | Research date 2026-11-06

### One line

OnSiren is a free app for UK SIA-licensed security officers, offering cross-employer "area radio + incident alerts + AI shift briefings". Some people call it "the Waze for security officers". It took off mainly not because of the product or paid ads, but because of the founder's existing assets. Co-founder Shahzad Ali also founded Get Licensed, the UK's largest security training and recruitment platform, which says it has trained 400k+ licensed officers. OnSiren draws on that pool, plus Get Licensed's own social channels, industry contacts, and a board with "former MI5 director"-level backing. The real differentiation has two layers: a closed network verified against SIA licences, and public channels that work across companies and are split by location. Get Licensed's resources are what make those two layers workable, and a small team copying them would struggle to cold-start.

### Data (our googleplay library + store listings)

- Play installs: 2026-10-29 is 3,346,11-06 is 3,927, +581 in the last 7 days, roughly +80–110 per day. This is not a one-off spike (googleplay.app_day).

- UK Play Communication free chart: ranked 192–198 from 10-29 to 10-31, jumped to 81 at 11-01, then settled at 74–87 (googleplay.chart_rank). The UK communication free chart is easy to climb: a few dozen installs can move the ranking.

- Play rating (score in chart snapshots): 3.1–3.4. Very few reviews, and the library didn't capture review text.

- iOS (id6795977065, UK store): 28 ratings, average 4.0, version 0.5.1,2026-09-18 on sale (iTunes lookup, 2026-11-06).

- Play listing date 2026-08-16, before the official launch. Official launch was 2026-10-14 17:45, with the event held "135 metres up" in London, which looks like the London Eye (OnSiren TikTok).

- Self-reported: over 2,500 pre-registrations before launch (press release onsiren.com/blog/onsiren-launch-connecting-security-officers). The founder said "a sign-up every few seconds, projected 2,000–2,500 for the day" (shahzad-ali.com/journal/onsiren-what-a-privilege). The website live counter shows "Officers on the net 8,385 / Live channels 1,970" (onsiren.com, 2026-11-06). 8,385 is probably the combined iOS and Android sign-up total. 1,970 looks like a preset number of location zones, not active channels. Not verified.

- Pricing: free for individual officers with a valid SIA licence. The B2B team plan is £6.99 per seat per month, minimum 5 seats. There is also a premium tier at £199 per seat per month (onsiren.com/business). Police and BID pricing is listed as free or quote-based.

### Competitors

| Name | Where | Timeline | Scale | How OnSiren is different |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zello PTT Walkie Talkie | iOS/Android | Around 2012 | 122M installs on Play (googleplay library) | General-purpose radio where anyone can create a channel, with no identity checks, no "nearby officers" concept, and no intelligence layer |
| Disc Against Crime(Littoralis) | Web + app | 2010 era | Widely used by UK BIDs and BCRPs (Bristol, Brighton, Wolverhampton, etc.), Secured by Design accredited | Sold to business crime reduction partnerships, with businesses paying membership fees (e.g. £9.50/week in Brighton). The core is suspect files and exclusion lists, not a social or radio network for individual officers. |
| Traditional shopping-district radio: Town Link / ShopWatch | Physical radios | Decades | Built locally by each town | Requires buying hardware, businesses pay per site, covers one district only. OnSiren puts this on your phone, nationwide and free. |
| Auror | Web / app (B2B) | 2012 (New Zealand) | Claims to connect 59k stores and 3,600 enforcement agencies | Loss-prevention intelligence sold to retailers. Users are retail LP teams, not freelance licensed officers. |
| StaySafe / Peoplesafe / GuardTek(Trackforce) / Sentriplex | App(B2B) | various | UK lone workers / mainstream security management | Bought by employers, connects only that company's staff. OnSiren focuses on cross-employer use, and individuals can install it themselves. |
| WhatsApp groups | Big-company features | — | The de facto standard in the security community | No identity verification, no map zones, no radio or translation |

Bottom line: the two competing categories, general-purpose radio and employer-run security management / lone-worker tools, are both mature. But the position of a nationwide, cross-employer public network limited to licensed officers was empty before. The reason is not technical difficulty but cold start: you need an entry point that every officer knows and trusts.

### Growth levers (ranked by strength of evidence)

1. **Get Licensed's existing users and channels (confirmed)** : Founder Shahzad Ali started Get Licensed 2007 years ago. The press release says it "has helped 400k+ people become security officers". Get Licensed's TikTok has 52,663 followers and 2.09M likes in total (TikHub), and has posted an OnSiren promo video (tiktok.com/@getlicensed/video/7696571274180660502). Its Facebook page posted a video asking "what's it like working alone as a security officer, then show them this". The website's radio communications course is taught by Anthony Milner, who also hosts the Get Licensed podcast Frontline. In effect, the training platform's trainee pool is feeding users straight into the app.

2. **Pre-launch and launch campaign (confirmed)** : The website started posting blogs in July, a TikTok countdown ran ("Two officers. One street apart… That changes on 14 Oct"), and 2,500 pre-registrations came in before launch. The launch night was held at the London Eye. TikTok also posted stunts like "The 8nd person to press the walkie-talkie KILO90" (2,940 views). Street promos followed: handing out candy, spin wheels, and stopping security guards to chat. This video hit 8,170 views, the highest on the OnSiren account.

3. **Industry KOLs and authority backing (confirmed)** : the board chair is Lord Sarfraz; non-executive directors include former MI5 director Lord Parker and Olive Group co-founder Chris St George; the team includes former SIA director Steve McCormick and former ambassador to Somalia Mike Nithavrianakis. Michael Kill, CEO of the National Night Time Industries Association (NTIA), backed the launch on X; Professional Security magazine 2026-10-14 covered it; industry figures such as Daniel Garnham reshared it on LinkedIn; FGH Security and IPSA are credited.

4. **Word of mouth in Facebook security groups (confirmed to exist)** : Several officer Facebook groups have posts saying "I just installed OnSiren, if you're SIA-licensed…". Security company pages are also sharing it (highladsec2024).

5. **Paid acquisition (not found)** : OnSiren's TikTok has only 504 followers, and most videos get a few hundred to a few thousand views. No sign of creator campaigns at scale. Our Meta ad library doesn't track this category, so not finding ads doesn't mean none were run.

6. **Network effects and pull from organisations (inferred)** : The product offers police forces and BIDs free BOLOs and announcements, meaning organisations can use OnSiren as a distribution channel, which in turn pulls in officers. No public evidence yet of a specific police force going live.

### Why now

- Martyn's Law (the 2025 Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act) is expected to take effect in spring 2027. The SIA is the regulator, and venues' emergency preparedness, evacuation and lockdown duties will fall on security staff. OnSiren's B2B page sells evacuation and lockdown broadcasts, which fits (gov.uk guidance). This is a tailwind on timing, but not the direct reason users are arriving.

- Retail theft and attacks on shop staff have been hot topics in the UK for years. Older solutions like shopping-district radio and Disc are expensive and fragmented.

- The cost of speech-to-text, translation and LLM briefings has come down. A high share of migrant officers (Polish, Spanish and Romanian speakers) means "auto-translate radio into English" is a real need for that group.

### Differentiation, and whether it's a manufactured ranking

- Differentiation: ① SIA licence verification is required, making it a closed, professional-identity network. ② Channels are split by location and work across employers, so any "nearby officer" can hear you. ③ Radio includes transcription and multilingual translation. ④ Alpha One gives each shift an AI briefing, and lone workers get a "radio check" check-in that texts an emergency contact if they miss one.

- Is that the reason: **partly** . ①② is what sets it apart from Zello, WhatsApp and employer apps, and it's why guards would install it: "no more being alone at night." But a network product like this is worthless without a dense first batch of users, and that density comes from Get Licensed's trainee pool and industry endorsement, not the product itself. The AI briefing and translation feel more like bonus features and talking points. Play rating is only 3.1–3.4, and the product is still early (iOS version 0.5.1).

### How many people have seen it

Word in small circles: UK security trade media (Professional Security), LinkedIn and Facebook security groups, and the NTIA CEO mentioned it on X. Our X corpus (x-radar) returned 0 results for "OnSiren" in the last ~60 days, and no tech media or VC-circle accounts wrote about it. Revenue isn't public, and there's barely any to speak of: free for individuals, B2B just started selling. We found no copycats.

### What others can borrow

- **Professional licensing as a moat** : find a blue-collar group with national licensing (security guards, taxi / ride-hail drivers, care workers, electricians, doormen) and build a cross-employer community for "licensed holders only." This is a spot employer apps can't fill and general apps won't bother with.

- **Grow out of a trainee / job-seeker pool** : training and recruiting platforms already hold industry-wide rosters, so cold-start cost is close to zero.

- **Free for individuals, police / business districts / employers pay** : the users form the network, and the paying party is whoever wants access to it, similar to Waze selling to local governments.

- **Ceremonial launches** : countdowns, "the Nth person to press talk," call sign claiming, turning radio culture into identity.

- Other countries could copy it: Australia, Ireland and US states all have guard licensing regimes, and we haven't seen a national network of this kind.

### Unknowns

- The site says 8,385 officers online / registered: is that cumulative registrations or live online users? How many of the 1,970 channels actually have people talking?

- Retention and DAU are unknown; the Play rating is low for unclear reasons, and the database has no review text.

- Whether B2B customers (police forces, BIDs, security firms) are paying, and which ones; what the £199 plan actually includes.

- Whether it runs paid ads on Meta or TikTok: our ad library doesn't cover this, unverified.

- Funding: the founder says it "raised money," first investor Ali Ebrahim, amount unknown.

### Sources

- [www.onsiren.com/](https://www.onsiren.com/); /about; /business; /blog/onsiren-launch-connecting-security-officers (2026-10-14 press release)

- [shahzad-ali.com/journal/onsiren-what-a-privilege/](https://shahzad-ali.com/journal/onsiren-what-a-privilege/) (founder's launch-day post)

- [professionalsecurity.co.uk/products/guarding/platform-launch…](https://professionalsecurity.co.uk/products/guarding/platform-launch/) (2026-10-14)

- [x.com/MickKill/status/2115926899255890080](https://x.com/MickKill/status/2115926899255890080) (NTIA CEO)

- [www.thesecurityevent.co.uk/speakers/shahzad-ali](https://www.thesecurityevent.co.uk/speakers/shahzad-ali); [about.me/shahzad.ali](https://about.me/shahzad.ali) (Get Licensed founder background)

- TikTok @getlicensed (52,663 followers), @onsiren (504 followers, TikHub 2026-11-06)

- googleplay database app_day / chart_rank (2026-10-29 to 11-06); iTunes lookup id6795977065 (gb)

- Disc: discagainstcrime.com, securedbydesign.com; Auror: auror.co; Martyn's Law: gov.uk/guidance/understanding-martyns-law-and-the-sias-role-as-regulator

This article was written by AI from public data and the data we collect daily. Numbers are sourced, and inferences are labeled.