The disclosure is directed to requesting and providing acknowledgements to a talk spurt in a group communication. An embodiment transmits the talk spurt to one or more recipients participating in the group communication, receives a selection of one or more target recipients among the one or more participating recipients, and transmits a request to each of the one or more target recipients to acknowledge the talk spurt. An embodiment receives, at a mobile device, a talk spurt during the group communication, receives, at the mobile device, a request to acknowledge the talk spurt, and transmits, by the mobile device, an acknowledgement (ACK) or a negative acknowledgement (NACK) in response to the request without obtaining the floor of the group communication.