By the 24th century, these communication devices were integrated into the standard uniform badges and became known as comm-badges. Users no longer had to speak directly into the communicator, but rather could activate and deactivate them with the touch of a finger. The comm-badge came into general use by 2344. The Mk2 Comm-Badge were composed of a crystalline composite of silicon, beryllium, carbon-70, and gold and come into service in the early 2360s.
Communicators were also often used to allow transporter locks for beaming, thus acting as homing transponders. When accessing a computer, the communicator of the person at the terminal logged in the user information, thereby making it possible to trace back who accessed the computer.