Mobile Picker & Scanning
Setting up the ShipWave mobile picker app
Install the PWA on any phone or tablet, sign in with a PIN, and start picking, packing, or counting in under five minutes.
Installing the mobile PWA
The ShipWave mobile picker is a Progressive Web App—there is nothing to download from the App Store or Google Play. On any iOS or Android device, open Safari or Chrome and visit shipwave.app/m. Tap the browser share menu and choose Add to Home Screen. The app installs as a standalone icon with no browser chrome, full-screen camera access for scanning, and the same look and feel as a native app.
PIN-based login for the warehouse floor
Mobile devices on the floor are shared, so we use 4-digit PINs instead of email and password. In Admin → Team → Mobile PINs, assign each warehouse user a unique PIN. Picking a device, tapping in a PIN, and pressing the scanner is all it takes to start a session. Sessions auto-expire after 12 hours of inactivity, and managers can revoke a PIN instantly from the admin panel.
The four mobile roles
Each user has one of four roles that controls what they see in the app: Picker (sees the pick queue and bin scan flow), Packer (sees orders waiting to be packed and the verify-and-pack screen), Counter (sees assigned cycle-count zones with the blind-count UI), and Manager (sees everything plus the count approval queue and exception reports). A single user can hold multiple roles.
Required: enable bin tracking
Before the mobile app will accept any pick scan, the warehouse must have bin tracking turned on. Go to Admin → Settings → Operations and toggle
User.binTrackingEnabled to true. See Bin management and warehouse layout to build out your bin grid before you start picking.How offline scans are queued and synced
Big warehouses have dead zones, so the mobile app is offline-first. Every scan, short-pick reason, and pack confirmation is written to the device’s IndexedDB store first, then pushed to the server in the background. A small indicator at the top of the screen shows queued events. When the device reconnects, the queue drains automatically—pickers never have to retry or worry about losing work.
FAQs
Does the mobile app work on iPads and Zebra Android scanners?
Yes. Anything that runs modern Safari or Chrome works, including Zebra TC-series Android scanners, iPads, iPhones, Honeywell devices, and consumer phones. Hardware scanner triggers are supported when the device emits keyboard wedge events.
Can two pickers share one device?
Yes. Pressing the avatar in the top-right opens the PIN screen so the next picker can sign in without closing the app. Each scan is attributed to the active user.
How do I rotate a forgotten PIN?
A manager opens <strong>Admin → Team → Mobile PINs</strong>, finds the user, and clicks <em>Regenerate</em>. The old PIN is revoked immediately.
Does the app drain battery during long shifts?
The picker UI is intentionally minimal—no polling, no background scanners. We typically see 8–10 hours on a single Zebra TC22 charge with the screen on.
More in Mobile Picker & Scanning
- Bin management and warehouse layout
Build out your aisle, shelf, and bin structure once—then let ShipWave route pickers down the shortest path automatically.
- The mobile pick workflow
Scan bin, scan SKU, confirm quantity, move on. The mobile app guides pickers through each line and catches every mismatch.
- Scan-to-verify pack stations
Stop labels from going on the wrong box. Every pack scan is verified against the pick, and label purchase is blocked until pack is clean.
- Cycle counting with blind counts
Define count zones, schedule them on a rotation, and let counters verify quantities without seeing the expected number.
- Lot and serial number tracking
Track expiry dates, run recall workflows, and pick units in FEFO order with built-in GS1-128 barcode parsing.