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AIBU?

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Original poster

When the alert went off, be honest, did you think the Russia had launched one?

217 replies

Tping · 14/08/2026 23:47

When the alert went off did you, for a fraction of a second, think Vlad had finally snapped and pressed the button?

Disappointing if he had because I if I’d known, I’d have added more loo roll to the Tesco delivery.

OP posts:
Travellingshoes · 15/08/2026 07:04

Absolutely not. I though there was a fire nearby and had to be on alert.
I’m so glad they did this, too many people are ignoring how bad the situation is.

ThatLilacTiger · 15/08/2026 07:04

I did. We only got it in Welsh at first too, so I wondered if it was a nuke for a minute or two while I tried to translate it.

HJC88 · 15/08/2026 07:02

My immediate thought was wtf? Nearly jumped out of my skin because DH's went off at the same time, and then I read it and thought "that's an alert for the hard of thinking" 🤔

timtamsarebetterthanpenguins · 15/08/2026 06:58

daisychain01 · 15/08/2026 06:47

The government has run many trial alerts over the past 2 years. Unless you've been living under a rock, you'd be familiar with the sound, and it's widely known at the moment that there are fire risks across the UK,

stop creating attention seeking threads with titles that are click bait and not useful or funny,

My phone has never once gone off with any previous alert - it updated a couple of weeks ago and must have changed the settings.

myavocadoisgrowing · 15/08/2026 06:57

Am I the only one who’s disabled it? I really rather not know. Or if I really really need to know I’d come on to MN.

Lostinabba · 15/08/2026 06:51

I did think for for a split second something was kicking off. I live near two massive USAF bases.

itsgettingweird · 15/08/2026 06:50

I didn’t know what it was so grabbed my phone as it was screaming at me and then obviously remembered it’s the alert. By then I’d also seen the wildfire bit!

daisychain01 · 15/08/2026 06:47

The government has run many trial alerts over the past 2 years. Unless you've been living under a rock, you'd be familiar with the sound, and it's widely known at the moment that there are fire risks across the UK,

stop creating attention seeking threads with titles that are click bait and not useful or funny,

timtamsarebetterthanpenguins · 15/08/2026 06:44

No, I though my phone had malfunctioned!

Namechangedatheist · 15/08/2026 06:43

Colleagues in Cumbria assumed it was a warning about a problem at Sellafield.

Maraudingmarauders · 15/08/2026 06:40

No - I thought I’d sat in my phone and accidentally set off some kind of SOS signal.

Doingtheboxerbeat · 15/08/2026 06:38

I was in Aldi having a chat with a staff member about the eclipse, then we both heard some random alarm go off - he's worked there for years and didn't know what it was. We joked it was aliens . It just seemed fitting at the time.

Pernicketywishes · 15/08/2026 06:27

I was working and first thought it was a weird work alarm (I was away from my phone) and then realised it was an alert in Welsh that none of us understood. A member of staff quickly google translated it.

Though now I’m thinking I need to know a few key words in Welsh like

zombies, nukes, Putin, Trump, wildfires …

Almert · 15/08/2026 06:26

Mines disabled but DH's went off, I said, it's one of those alerts I think, he said it's about wildfires, I said, where here, I haven't smelt any smoke

HeyThereDelila · 15/08/2026 06:25

No, don’t be so melodramatic.

Palomiino · 15/08/2026 06:19

Thank goodness I disabled mine - my autistic dd would have had such a meltdown(!)

NoisyUmberBalonz · 15/08/2026 06:17

No. There's no context to suggest Russia are near to launching a nuke at us (let alone Ukraine, who they are directly at war with). Those saying yes should not be allowed a phone for their own mental health.

ChristinaPaigeDoesNotApprove · 15/08/2026 01:20

@Tping I thought my phone was playing up and I just sighed. It's been one of those weeks.

Darkenmydarkness · 15/08/2026 01:18

I thought it was something on the TV. It was later that I saw the message on my phone. Ironically, the last time I had a warning like that was in Spain, warning of floods.

BagsyTimBradford · 15/08/2026 01:15

Did everyone get the woman's voice warning as well as the the alert sounds and message? That really confused me as I heard the voice and thought my phone had randomly called someone.

Kate8889 · 15/08/2026 01:09

Vlad went from Smeagol to Gollum at least a decade ago, but he's not dumb enough to nuke his own children.

ClaudettedeBeauvoir · 15/08/2026 01:08

No, we were driving back from a family birthday celebration. My son's went off first, then his girlfriend's. We assumed it was a localised one, as we have had a big fire near the girlfriend's house and we were just round the corner from dropping her home. Then everyone else's went off and my children started getting messages from their friends who are away in different parts of the country.
It's good to know the system works!

InOverMyHead84 · 15/08/2026 01:02

Disabled them on my phone, so gleefully oblivious.

LBFseBrom · 15/08/2026 01:02

What alert, what have I missed?

SettledAndHappy · 15/08/2026 01:02

I'd never heard it before (possibly because my phone stays mostly on flight mode?) and I'd never heard about these alerts, so it came as a brief surprise that the government were able to do it