Talk without
stopping.

Yes. Everything is free during the beta. Every beta Space gets Crew 15 (up to 15 people), and we don’t ask for a card. After launch, the Free plan covers 1 Space with up to 3 people, 3 rooms, 7 days of history and 1 guest at a time. When you add a 4th person, you get a free 14-day Crew 15 trial. Family is $4.99/month (or $49/year) for up to 6 people, with 1 Space, 5 rooms, 30 days of history and 2 guests at a time. Crew 15 is $19.99/month (or $199/year) for up to 15 people, and beta Space owners lock in $14.99/month for life. Bigger crews go up in blocks of 5: Crew 20 is $24.99/month and Crew 25 is $29.99/month. Founding members pay $5 less on each ($19.99 and $24.99). Business is about $3/user/month, 10-user minimum, for 26 or more people. Nothing is ever charged unless you choose a paid plan.

A Space is one group with its own members, like your work crew, your family or a club. Inside each Space you make rooms: walkie rooms for talking, like #dispatch and #shipping, and chat rooms for messages. People in one Space can’t see or hear another. Spaces you’re invited to never count, only the ones you own. Free includes 1 Space with up to 3 rooms, and Family 1 Space with up to 5. On Crew you can own up to 3 Spaces with up to 20 rooms each, and Business has unlimited Spaces with up to 100 rooms each. On every plan, people are counted across all your Spaces: each person counts once, even if they’re in two of your Spaces, and you count as one. Guests don’t count while their pass is active, and guests at a time are also a total across your Spaces.

Free is for trying KeyUp out, or for 2 or 3 people. Family fits families of 4 to 6, with more history and a couple of guest passes. Crew is built for work crews or any group bigger than a family, starting at 15 people and growing in blocks of 5. Business is for 26 or more people, or any team that wants admin tools, priced per person with a 10-user minimum.

Because crews change every week. New hires, temps and seasonal help shouldn’t mean a bigger bill each month. Crew 15 is one flat price for up to 15 people, and Crew 20 and Crew 25 add 5 people at a time as your crew grows. Guests don’t count toward your limit while their pass is active. Teams of 26 or more can use Business, which is priced per person.

No. KeyUp is built for loud workplaces, and it works just as well for families and friend groups. Send a quick “hey, I’m here” or “grab milk” without a full phone call, keep a friends list you can message or call directly, and make a room for the family or the carpool. The Free plan covers up to 3 people, and Family covers up to 6 for $4.99 a month.

A call has to ring and be answered, and a text has to be typed and read. With KeyUp you hold the button (or turn your watch crown), say it, and let go. Everyone in the room hears it right away, and they can replay it if they missed it. When you do need a real conversation, you can message or call from the same app.

Yes, anywhere you have Wi-Fi or mobile data, with no range limit between cars, rides or campsites. It isn’t a radio, so where there’s no signal at all it can’t reach anyone.

Android phones running Android 9 or newer, and watches running Wear OS 3 or newer, including Pixel Watch, Samsung Galaxy Watch4 and newer, and other Wear OS watches. On iPhone, use KeyUp in Safari today (see the next question). There’s no Apple Watch app yet.

Yes. Use KeyUp in Safari today, and add it to your Home Screen so it opens like an app. You can talk and listen in rooms, message friends, answer calls while it’s open and get notifications (iOS 16.4 or later). The iPhone app is in development. Until then, keep KeyUp open to talk and listen: when you switch apps or lock your phone, it pauses. See KeyUp on iPhone and Use KeyUp on iPhone.

No. The phone app has a big talk button and works great on its own. A watch just means you never have to take your phone out: turn the crown (or tap the button on the watch) and talk.

No. Your watch doesn’t need its own data plan. It uses your phone’s connection over Bluetooth, or its own Wi-Fi or LTE if it has them. With your phone nearby, within Bluetooth range, it just works. Talking over Bluetooth can have a little more delay than Wi-Fi.

Yes, when the watch has its own Wi-Fi or LTE. Leave your phone behind and the watch talks and listens in your rooms (the room plays on the watch while your phone is away), shows its own notifications, makes and answers calls (private calls too), lists missed calls, accepts friend requests and invitations, and sends quick replies. You can even set up a watch without a KeyUp phone: scan the QR code on the watch with any phone, or go to keyupradio.com/pair. These watch features are built and now being tested on real watches. Creating rooms and Spaces, guest passes and account settings stay on the phone app. See Talk on your watch while your phone is away.

Crown talk means turning the crown clockwise to talk and turning it back to stop. The Accessibility setting lets it work even with the screen off. Android shows the same general warning for every accessibility service, because the permission is powerful, but KeyUp only uses it for one thing: reading crown turns, and only while crown talk is on and the screen is off or KeyUp or your watch face is showing. In any other app the crown scrolls like normal. KeyUp never reads what’s on your screen, what you type, or anything inside other apps, and nothing from this permission is stored or sent. See Turn on screen-off crown talk.

Yes. In KeyUp your mic and your speaker can be different devices. Talk into your watch and hear the crew in any Bluetooth or wired headphones, including music-only earbuds that don’t have a mic. If you’re playing music, it keeps playing and just dips while someone talks, then comes back up.

Open mic lets you talk hands-free: instead of pressing a button, KeyUp sends when it hears your voice. It’s tuned to ignore bangs, beeps, conveyors and backup alarms, so the room isn’t flooded with noise, and you can make it more or less sensitive. Quiet and loud talkers are evened out, you can set each person’s volume, and your headphones and speaker each have their own volume boost.

It uses more than the other ways to talk, because the microphone stays on. Hold, Tap and crown talk barely use the battery while you wait. For hands-free all day, use open mic on your phone and the crown or Tap on your watch. You can also set open mic to pause by itself after 15, 30 or 60 minutes of quiet, and the room keeps playing. See Save battery on your phone and watch.

Yes. KeyUp works over any internet connection (Wi-Fi or mobile data like LTE and 5G) and switches between them as you move. It does need some connection: it isn’t a radio, so with no signal at all it can’t reach your crew.

Everything you send is encrypted in transit, and our servers use encrypted storage. Rooms, messages and regular calls are not end-to-end encrypted: our servers handle them so features like rewind and transcripts can work. Private calls (beta) are end-to-end encrypted: our servers pass the audio along without being able to hear it. Live voice isn’t stored. Rewind recordings, transcripts and the AI assistant are off unless your Space turns them on, and you choose whether your own voice is transcribed or heard by the AI. Stored history is kept for your plan’s history window, then deleted automatically. We don’t sell your data, and there are no ads. You can download your data or delete your account from inside the app at any time. Read the Privacy Policy for the details.

Private calls (beta) are end-to-end encrypted 1-to-1 calls with a safety code you can compare. Your voice is encrypted on your device and only unlocked on the other person’s, so our servers pass the audio along without being able to hear it, and there’s no recording, transcripts or AI. If you both see the same 6-digit code, nobody else is listening. Our servers still see who called whom, when and for how long. Private calls are new and still being tested, so they aren’t guaranteed yet. Don’t rely on them for sensitive conversations until they’ve been independently reviewed. They work in the Android and Wear OS apps, not yet in the web app. See Make a private call.

Transcripts turn what people say into text you can read and search. They’re made on KeyUp’s own servers. Free and Family don’t include transcripts. Crew 15 gets 20 hours a month, Crew 20 gets 25 hours, Crew 25 gets 30 hours, and Business is unlimited (fair use). Hours come with the Space owner’s plan and are shared by all their Spaces, with a breakdown per room. Transcripts are off until a Space owner or admin turns them on for a room, and your own voice is only transcribed if you agree. Admins can see how many hours are left and when they reset, and get a heads-up at 90% used. At 100%, transcripts pause until the next monthly reset, but talking keeps working the whole time.

It’s optional. KeyUp’s assistant uses your own account with an AI company like OpenAI or Anthropic. The Space owner connects it once in Space settings by pasting an API key (a password-like code from that company), then turns the assistant on for the rooms they choose. That company bills the Space owner directly for what you use. KeyUp doesn’t charge for AI, on any plan. Ask it by voice (say its name, then your question) or by text (type @ and its name). What you ask, plus a few minutes of recent room conversation from people who agreed to the assistant, is sent to that company to get an answer. Everyone agrees once before the assistant can hear them. Voice questions are turned into text first, so they need transcript hours available for the Space. Answers show in the room chat and are read aloud on phones and watches in the room. When the assistant is off, nothing goes to any AI. The assistant is always shown in violet, so you know when you’re talking to it.

A guest pass is a link or QR code that lets someone into a room for a while, with just their name and no account. Every link and QR code you share is a guest pass. Guests join from the app or a web browser and only see the rooms on their pass. You choose how long it lasts (1 hour, 12 hours, 1 day or 1 week) and can turn it off sooner. Active guests don’t count toward your people limit. Free allows 1 guest at a time, Family allows 2, Crew allows up to 10, and Business up to 25, all guests at a time, across all your Spaces. Each person can use 2 guest passes per Space every 30 days. A guest who wants to stay can create a free account and ask, and the Space owner or an admin decides. To keep someone for good, invite them as a friend or add them by username.

Radio Bridge is an add-on for Crew and Business, now in beta. It connects a KeyUp room to a real two-way radio, so people on KeyUp hear the radio and radio users hear KeyUp. You need a small computer next to the radio and a USB radio interface cable. It’s +$10/month, and free to try during beta. See Radio Bridge.

Sign up with the form above. We’re opening in waves: 250 beta spots first, then 250 more, then 500. A spot is for the person who starts a Space, so sign up early to save yours. When your wave opens we’ll email you a Google Play testing link. Open it on your Android phone, tap Become a tester, then install KeyUp from Google Play. The watch app installs from the Play Store on your watch. The people you invite get a one-tap link to join the beta too, and they don’t use up a spot.

Yes. Use the feedback form or email [email protected]. We read every one. We can’t promise to build everything, but beta testers get a direct line to the people building KeyUp.

No. KeyUp depends on internet service, servers and your batteries, so it’s not a replacement for emergency radios or 911. Keep your site’s emergency procedures, and in an emergency call 911 or your local emergency number.

Email [email protected] with “Security” in the subject. See our Security page for what’s in scope and how we respond.