A companion app · Now on the App Store

Sideline Headset

A wireless headset for your staff, on the phones you already carry.

Headset puts your coaching staff on one line. Your voice goes straight from your phone to the other coaches' phones, encrypted the whole way, with no server in the middle and nothing recorded — because there is no recording to keep, to hand over, or to lose.

Headset is included with a Sideline SideKick Tracker coach subscription. There is nothing extra to buy. The coach who subscribes creates the team; every coach on that staff can use the line, whether or not they were the one who paid.

It is a second app and it needs a SideKick team. You sign in with the same account — there is no separate sign-up — and you have to be staff. Parents and players who joined with an invite code do not get the line, which is the same boundary the playbook sits behind.

What it does

One button, for a thumb that is not looking

The talk button is the only control that matters, and it is sized for somebody watching the field rather than the phone. Everything else on the screen is deliberately smaller than it is.

Breakouts, made of people

A coordinator who needs his two position coaches pulls those coaches off the main line — you choose people, not a room you then have to persuade everyone to join. When it is done, they are back on the line.

A board, so nobody else has to work the app

Dispatch shows every coach, which channel they are on, and moves them with one tap. It exists so that a comms tech can run the staff's headsets and no coach has to think about the app at all during a game.

Signal you can read at a glance

Each coach carries three bars and a colour. The numbers underneath are round-trip time and packet loss, and neither is a thing anybody on a sideline is going to act on — so they are not shown.

On your wrist

There is an Apple Watch app, so a coach can hear the line and see who is on it without taking a phone out.

A look at it

One button the size of a thumb, and words instead of numbers.

Every screen is built to be read by somebody watching the field, in one glance, with a phone held low.

The line screen: the team name at the top, channel chips for All Staff and Offense, a list of six coaches showing who is talking, who is muted and who has dropped out, and a full-width green ON button reading 'Everyone can hear you'. — On the line — who is on, who is talking

The New breakout sheet: an optional name field, and a list of coaches with checkboxes to bring with you onto the new channel. — A breakout is people, not a room

The Move coaches board: coaches grouped under All Staff and Offense, each with a one-tap switch arrow, and a link to close the breakout and send everyone back. — Dispatch, so no coach works the app

The same screen with the button turned orange and reading NO MIC, 'Your phone took the audio. Tap to get it back.', and a warning that the line is playing out loud through the speaker. — When something breaks, it says so in English

When the stadium has no signal

This is the case it is built for. When a stadium's service is unusable, your staff joins one coach's Personal Hotspot. Every phone is then on the same network and the app connects them directly over it — no carrier, no internet, no server.

NFHS 1-6-2 allows coaches and non-players to use electronic devices; it never allows communicating with a player during live play. Headset is coach-to-coach, like the Booth in SideKick. Check your own association's rules — they govern your Friday, not this page.

What it stores

Almost nothing, and no student information of any kind. What it keeps is a short list of who is on the line right now: your name, which channel you are on, and whether you are muted. No ads, nothing sold, and nothing used to track you across other apps or websites. If something goes wrong it may send a crash report so the fault can be fixed — never with any audio, any name, or any link to your account.

Your voice is never recorded. It is carried directly between phones and encrypted the whole way; no server is in the middle of the call.

Read the full Headset privacy policy

Where it is up to

Headset is new, and it is fair to say so. Version 1.0 shipped this week. It is built to run alongside the equipment your staff already trusts rather than to replace it, so take it onto the field as a second line first, and tell us what breaks — Support has the address.

Getting it

Headset is on the App Store, as a separate free download from Sideline SideKick Tracker. It is included with your coach subscription — there is no second thing to buy. Install it, sign in with the same account you use for the tracker, and you are on your own staff's line.

Get Sideline Headset Get the tracker

Something not working the way this page says? Support has the address.