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Original poster

Emergency alerts to your phone

333 replies

TheFirstOfHerName · 19/03/2023 02:27

From April, the government will be able to send emergency alerts to our mobile phones.

www.gov.uk/alerts

A siren will go off, even if your phone is on silent. You won't be able to do anything else on your phone until you turn it off. They plan to test this on 23 April.

I understand the reasons why this can be helpful, and in areas where people need to suddenly evacuate due to wildfires, earthquakes, tornadoes etc it could save lives.

However, personally I don't want it, and have disabled it on my phone.

  1. Of the emergencies I might experience, I'm not sure I'd want to be alerted to any of them via this method. If a flood or storm is imminent, I'll find out through the usual channels. If a nuclear missile is heading my way, having a few minutes' warning will not help.
  1. This system is being run / overseen by the UK government, and my trust in them has been somewhat eroded over the past few years.
  1. I have an anxiety disorder (reasonably well managed with combination of medication and other methods) and I think the cost to my anxiety levels of having my phone suddenly sirenning at me outweighs the negligible probability of this system saving my life.
If you are the kind of calm, resilient person who could have these alarms going off and it not completely throw you, then great.
OP posts:
Thread gallery
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Mariposa26 · 19/03/2023 05:54

In Hawaii these caused mass panic in 2018 when warning of a missile was sent out by mistake. Based on the incompetence of our government, this worries me.

Original poster
TheFirstOfHerName · 19/03/2023 09:05

NumberTheory · 19/03/2023 03:23

I live in a country with emergency alerts sent to phones.

The first one I received I was driving, it was so loud and unexpected I was distracted from driving. I thought it was really dangerous. I was being informed of a missing child over a hundred miles away, there was no proper description of the child, only that she was female, aged 6, and might be in a red car. I turned of these alerts in settings.

A year or so later I got woken at 4 am by an alert from my city government telling me it was going to be very hot and I should check on my elderly neighbours. I turned off alerts from city government after that.

The third one was an alert to stay home because of COVID-19. This was months and months after the start of the pandemic. I turned off all alerts after that one.

I live somewhere that is prone to some types of natural disaster and is near a military base and could potentially be a target in an attack by terrorists or a hostile country. So an emergency alert system seems like a good idea. But the government here are so heady at the idea of being able to contact everyone that they have lost credibility as far as I'm concerned.

I suspect the UK government will be more restrained. I would give it a chance and see how it goes. But if they abuse it, even once, I'd be looking for hacks to turn it off if you can't just do it in settings.

@NumberTheory - I would not have wanted to be alerted by this method in any of those three scenarios. The first one I would have seen on local news / social media, and the second is what weather apps are for. I don't see any way of preventing it going off while you are driving, particularly if you are using your phone for navigation.

OP posts:
Original poster
TheFirstOfHerName · 19/03/2023 09:09

I think I have managed to set it up so my phone vibrates for alerts but I don't get the siren. I'll find out on 23 April whether this has worked.

OP posts:
AnneElliott · 19/03/2023 09:14

I think it's a good idea. The US has it and we got a warning about a hurricane when we were out there.

It will be very rare that a warning is used. Only if there's a risk to life.

Abraxan · 19/03/2023 09:16

I've been in the US and received emergency alerts, mainly missing children with descriptions and car details. I can see the benefits of that esp if you are travelling nearby at the time.

LostAtTheCrossRoad · 19/03/2023 09:16

Where are the options to turn it off? There's nothing in the page you posted OP?

PuttingDownRoots · 19/03/2023 09:19

Having once missed a storm warning... I find the idea very useful.

Caterina99 · 19/03/2023 09:20

We had them in the US. It didn’t go off very often (maybe few times a year at most). It was normally a missing child or an extreme weather alert.

It was really loud, but you could turn them off.

Singleandproud · 19/03/2023 09:21

@TheFirstOfHerName Presumably you aren't always in the place that you live, you travel to other areas and the Emergency Alerts will be sent to specific and relevant geographic areas.

So if you happen to be somewhere new and a major incident happened like a reservoir breech you would then get the alert - you may not know there is a reservoir in the area. Or if you are on holiday to the coast and the wind suddenly changes direction causing a tidal surge to flood the area you would get the alert.

It isn't just about where you live now.

Havanananana · 19/03/2023 09:23

What's the point? Last week or so there were weather warnings all over the UK news telling people that there was going to be heavy snowfall and potential traffic problems. The usual idiots promptly got into their cars and got caught out anyway.

FixTheBone · 19/03/2023 09:23

Depends on what the threshold for 'emergency' is...

I anticipate constant warnings of 'the UK is screwed' for the next 15-20 years..

newjobnewstartihope · 19/03/2023 09:24

Nimbostratus100 · 19/03/2023 02:30

I think it is a good idea

Putin is a deranged, deluded psycho. I have faith that he has enough reasonable people around him not to bomb Nato countries, but you can never be 100% sure

Plus terrorism, plus tsunamis, plus meteorite fall

Why would you not want to know immediately if you need to take shelter or move to higher ground?

Wtf has Putin got to do with anything?

Original poster
TheFirstOfHerName · 19/03/2023 09:24

LostAtTheCrossRoad · 19/03/2023 09:16

Where are the options to turn it off? There's nothing in the page you posted OP?

Go to your phone settings and search for emergency alerts.

Trigger warning (DV):

For me it would just be uncomfortable to have this siren going off unexpectedly; the worst that will happen is insomnia / panic attack. For some people (e.g. those living with an abusive partner who need to keep a secondary phone for safety) it could put them at risk; the worst that could happen is that they will be injured or killed.

Although I think this system is a good idea on a population level, it's important for individuals to be able to disable the sound.

OP posts:
kitsuneghost · 19/03/2023 09:24

Messyplayallday · 19/03/2023 02:57

We have this in the US where I am and it alerts when a child is missing including a car description and plate if needed. Also if vulnerable people are missing eg elderly with dementia or similar. Other alerts might go off such as weather warnings and fire tracking (I live near yearly forest fires, we have snow and avalanches that sometimes come close to roads and also last few years horrifically hot summer).
It only notifies in our specific area though, not the whole of our state so it’s relevant and not continuous.

Its a good system here so hopefully it’ll work well in the UK too

I would have left it on until you said that. Good to have for a real emergency but a bit annoying to have alerts for every missing child.

PlateBilledDuckyPerson · 19/03/2023 09:26

A good idea but how long before scammers monetise it, as they did with Covid alerts?

DustyLee123 · 19/03/2023 09:27

Isn’t there a thread about this already 🤔

LakieLady · 19/03/2023 09:27

That'll be fun when I'm in the middle of doing an appeal tribunal by telephone!

BelindaBears · 19/03/2023 09:29

I’ve turned it off on my phone. I don’t live in a flood risk area, we don’t really get earthquakes/tornadoes/tsunamis in the UK and if there’s a nuclear strike incoming I don’t have a bunker and we’re all fucked anyway.

squashyhat · 19/03/2023 09:30

DustyLee123 · 19/03/2023 09:27

Isn’t there a thread about this already 🤔

Does it matter? This is the first I have heard about it so thanks for the heads-up OP.

Original poster
TheFirstOfHerName · 19/03/2023 09:33

DustyLee123 · 19/03/2023 09:27

Isn’t there a thread about this already 🤔

I looked and searched before starting this one (about 90 minutes after the news was announced) and couldn't see one. Sorry.

OP posts:
Thriwit · 19/03/2023 09:34

I was just reading about this, tbh my first thought was that it was for missile warnings.

We just don’t really have that many natural disasters in the U.K. The EA already have flood alerts.

Forfrigz · 19/03/2023 09:34

I read about this. It will probably give me quite a shock as my phone is always on silent haha. I think it will probably be fine though and hardly ever used. If we get nuked there'll probably be a period of high tension before it's launched which would be the time to evacuate, not when it's en route.

Nimbostratus100 · 19/03/2023 09:35

newjobnewstartihope · 19/03/2023 09:24

Wtf has Putin got to do with anything?

Show quote history

what do you think Putin has to do with anything?

MajorCarolDanvers · 19/03/2023 09:36

Power station accident
Chemical spillage
Terrorism
Gun man on the rampage

There are sadly bad things that can happen inland, up a hill.

Singleandproud · 19/03/2023 09:38

It won't be used for missing children in the UK the go ahead to send an Emergency Alert will come from the Cobra committee unless a serious development happens at a local level with no time to communicate with Cobra and then it will be sent by senior strategic command members in the area and will only be used when there is a serious risk to life.