Data package
A bundle you import once: maps, overlays, icons and settings. It sits on your phone until you change it.
Training
Learn TAK the way you'll use it.
ATAK shows you everything at once, and that's why people give up on it. We teach one tool at a time, phone in hand, outdoors when we can, until you can do it without the sheet.
Before you start
Is TAK for you?
TAK has a steep learning curve, and it isn't for everyone. That's worth knowing up front.
It's built for people who have to stay connected no matter what: a patroller on a snowy summit, a guard on the water, a family that wants a plan that works when the towers don't. Those people put in the time, and it pays off.
If you want an app you can figure out in five minutes, a simple family locator will serve you better. TAK rewards people who go slow and stick with it. Even an hour a day, it takes weeks to get comfortable, one small piece at a time.
Day one is just the basics: markers and icons, the lasso for selecting things, and the drawing tools. Our AI teammate can draw on the map for you, but the point is that you can do it yourself when it matters.
Step one
Just getting on the server is the first hurdle
It's the part that stops most people, so we do it with you on the first call.
A private TAK server doesn't let just anyone in. Getting on takes two keys, the same idea as two-step sign-in at a bank: something you have and something you know.
- Something you have. A trust file from your setup sheet, which tells your phone it's really talking to our server. Then the certificate your phone receives when you enroll: its own digital ID card, stored on that phone.
- Something you know. Your username and password, which prove it's you when the phone asks for that certificate.
After that, the certificate does the talking and you stay connected. A new phone, or a phone that's been reset, enrolls again. Nobody gets it on the first try alone, and that's fine.
The things everyone mixes up
Package, plugin, iconset or live feed?
Sorting these out is close to a full day on its own. Here's the short version.
Plugin
An add-on that gives ATAK new tools, like the radio plugin that connects your phone to the mesh. Install only the ones you'll use.
Symbols or iconsets
ATAK comes with its own built-in symbols. Iconsets are extra libraries of pictures, like fire engines or helicopters, that arrive in a data package and show up in the Point Dropper. Same map, different drawers.
Live feed
A layer that keeps updating from a server while you watch: aircraft overhead, traffic incidents, fire. Turn on one at a time.
Reading the map
It looks like spaghetti. It all means something.
The first busy TAK map you see looks like the inside of an old phone company building: wires everywhere. But every wire in that building was color-coded, and every color meant something. A TAK map works the same way. If you don't know the code, you don't know what you're looking at.
Shape and color
FriendlyNeutralHostileUnknown
A basic marker's shape and color say whose side it's on. They mean the same thing on every TAK map in the world.
Circles are people
A colored circle is a teammate. The color is their team, the letters inside are their role, and a slash means their phone has no GPS fix right now. Team color and marker color are two different things, and everyone mixes them up at first.
Icons say what it is
An engine, an aircraft, a weather station, a camera. The icon tells you what an item is before you touch it.
Labels come and go
A name or callsign shows under an item only if it has one and labels are switched on. An item with no label isn't broken; nobody named it.
Tap for the story
Tap any item to open its radial menu, then Details. That's where the data lives: the weather station's temperature and wind, an aircraft's altitude and speed, a marker's remarks and photos.
Hide what you're not using
The Overlay Manager turns whole groups off at once, by type or by side. A clean map is a map you can read.
Three ways in
Pick the one that fits
On your own
freeRead the field course and practice on your phone. Most of Level 1 works on any ATAK install with no server at all.
Start the free course →Team sessions
by requestWe run the course with your people, live over video: four sessions of about an hour, with my phone on your screen and your people doing the drills outdoors on their own phones and radios. You finish with a team that works off one map.
Book team training →Train the trainer
by requestFor patrol leads, captains and coordinators who will teach their own crew. You complete all four levels, then teach a session while we watch.
Book team training →
The course
Ground school and four levels
Every module ends with a drill and a check-off. You pass a module when you can do the drill without help, not when you've read it.
| Level | Modules | Session |
|---|---|---|
| Ground school | Install, connect, callsign, team, units | 1 |
| 1 · Operator | The map, markers, range & bearing | 1 |
| 2 · Teammate | Chat, sharing, Bloodhound and routes, alerts and tracks | 2, outdoors |
| 3 · The live picture | Overlay Manager, live layers, staying current | 3 |
| 4 · Off grid | Meshtastic radios, mesh chat, realistic range | 4, outdoors |
How we teach
See one, do one, teach one
- Settings first. Feet and miles, callsign, team color and role, before anything else. Half of all confusion is someone reading meters or showing up as a gray dot.
- One tool per block. Fifteen to twenty minutes each. Show it once, you do it, then you show the next person.
- Pairs, spread out. Most team drills need someone somewhere else: across the yard, down the block, in another city.
- Mistakes are free. Nothing you drop on a training map hurts anything. Delete it and drop it again.
- Ask the AI teammate. On our server, the AI teammate answers in chat and draws on the map, so new users can practice with a teammate who's always available.
Why we go slow
Don't turn everything on
TAK can show you everything at once. That's exactly how new users get lost.
We learned this the hard way. While testing our own feeds, we switched on every live layer we run, all at once, and ATAK crashed on a two-year-old flagship phone. A new user who does the same thing gets a crash, a cluttered map and no idea what any of it means.
So we don't hand you every tool. Your phone starts with the map, your people and the chat. Layers and plugins come one at a time, as you learn what each one does and find you need it.
- Start with three things: the map, your team and chat
- Add one layer at a time, and turn off what you're not using
- Install only the plugins you'll actually use
- Practice before the day you need it
Most people have never seen TAK before, and that's normal. Getting comfortable takes weeks of short practice, not one afternoon. We go at the pace your people can keep.
Get started
Tell us about your team
Tell me how many people, what you do, where you work, and whether you already have ATAK or radios. Practice accounts on our server come with team training. See plans.
[email protected]Server details and credentials are never posted publicly. They come privately with your setup sheet.