Last updated: April 6th, 2020
Nectar is a free service with a team doing its best to provide you with a delightful experience. Before reaching out to our technical support team, please look for the answer to your question below. Can’t find what you’re looking for? Email hello@nectarcall.com. We do our best to respond to all questions within 24-48 hours.
For All Audiences
For the Public Safety Community
For the Technical Community
For All Audiences
Nectar (Non-Emergency Call To A Resident), enables individuals to safely receive two-way audio and video calls from first responders at a distance to reduce the transmission of COVID-19.
Because of the unprecedented nature of the COVID-19 crisis, first responders are stretched thinner than ever. While they are still responding in person to emergencies, not all calls for service will result in dispatching an officer to your home or business. Nectar is a bridge that provides a closer level of connectedness, giving you the ability to show what’s going on from your phone’s camera. Downloading the free Nectar app is the first step to enabling video communication.
Nectar will be available in early April for the iPhone, iPad and Android devices through the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Nectar is a free service provided by the creators of the popular 10-21 Police Phone app used by 1 in 5 officers to make them more accessible to their communities.
Nectar is a service by the St. Petersburg, Florida based company Callyo. Our team is devoted to building technologies that improve the safety of our communities and the first responders who protect them. Some of our other efforts involve supporting investigations into child exploitation and human trafficking. Today, it’s our civic duty to contribute time and financial resources to help alleviate new challenges arising from COVID-19.
Nectar collects the bare minimum amount of data required to reliably connect residents to first responders and does not share or sell your data with third parties. Read our Privacy Policy.
Nectar adheres to the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF) digital rights guidance that COVID-19 response apps should be effective, science-based, necessary, proportionate, contain strict anti-bias rules, and be subject to strict safeguards and audits.
Specifically, Nectar collects:Note: When receiving a call from first responders (such as a police officer) via the Nectar app, they may ask you for personally identifiable information such as your name, location and description of the incident. Data volunteered by you on these calls shall be protected by the public safety agency in accordance with their existing privacy frameworks in a similar manner to how calls to your police department’s non-emergency number would be handled today.
Calls on Nectar do not automatically enable your device’s camera. Both the resident and the first responder must first tap the video camera icon to enable the camera. The camera is not permitted to be enabled in the background or outside of an active Nectar call. Video for both parties is not required. For example, a police officer may choose to share their video, but that doesn’t mean that the resident has to.
That’s it! Should a participating public safety agency try to reach you, the call will come in via the Nectar app rather than a standard phone call. If you miss the call, you can use the Nectar app to request a call back.
Nectar was rapidly deployed in response to COVID-19 as a means to receive video calls from first responders and to request follow-up calls back. Stay tuned for future enhancements to Nectar that enable you to better connect with first responders.
While Nectar is available in all regions of the world for download, it requires a 10-digit mobile phone number at this time to register. The Nectar team is working quickly to make the service available outside of the US and Canada. If you represent an international public safety agency that is interested in deploying Nectar in your country, contact hello@nectarcall.com.
Nectar is currently available in English and Spanish, though the first responder connecting to you may or may not be bilingual. If you would like to contribute interface translations in other languages to the Nectar team, email hello@nectarcall.com.
The Nectar app is required to receive a video call as a resident. However, if you don’t have the app, you may still receive audio (regular phone calls) from public safety agencies as you always have.
Want to get technical? Browsers on Android and iOS do support WebRTC, the technology Nectar uses to connect video calls. However, not all mobile browsers support WebRTC, or don’t support it well. For better performance and convenience, mobile apps are still the best route for reliable live video connections.
Complimentary technical support is available by email at hello@nectarcall.com.
For the Public Safety Community
Verified law enforcement officers can initiate video calls to residents using the free 10-21 Police Phone app, available for Apple and Android devices. If the resident does not have Nectar, 10-21 will connect a standard voice call as it always has.
10-21 is the most widely used app today by law enforcement, with over 1 in 5 officers across more than half of agencies in the US. 10-21 is AT&T FirstNet Listed, meaning it has proven to be secure, highly-available, and relevant to first responders.
Like a fax machine, both parties need the technology to make it useful. Since 10-21 Police Phone is already installed by more officers than any other law enforcement app, and it’s used for calling residents, it made perfect sense to simply add video to those existing calls.
Residents on the other hand need an app to receive those video calls - that’s where Nectar comes in. If you’re communicating with officers in your agency, the clear message is, “Keep using 10-21 Police Phone to call residents. If they have Nectar installed, you’ll have the option to enable your video camera to provide better service.”
No. Video calls are free through the duration of the COVID-19 crisis, though they may become a premium feature once the world has recovered.
10-21 Police Phone Premium however does provide additional benefits that may be valuable to public safety. These include records retention of audio and video calls and tools to improve resident answer rates, such as an automated SMS that goes out to the resident, enabling them to easily request a call back.
Email us at hello@nectarcall.com to connect with the Nectar team and gain access to digital handouts, suggested language, and recommendation on how to quickly onboard your whole agency.
Not right now, but we’re working on it. 10-21 Police Phone has historically been for law enforcement and our processes for verifying officers are being reviewed so we can evaluate how to accept Fire and EMS. If you’d like to be notified when it is available for you, email us at hello@nectarcall.com.
For the Technical Community
Audio and Video shared in Nectar calls is end-to-end encrypted, never stored, and can never be accessed by Nectar or any third party.
Nectar utilizes WebRTC Peer-to-Peer Rooms that negotiate a separate DTLS/SRTP connection to every participant. All media published to or subscribed from the Room is sent over these secure connections, and is encrypted only at the sender and decrypted only at the receiver.