Emergency alerts to your phone

[TheFirstOfHerName]

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.

That's because you can't use hand held phones when driving here.

However, if your phone is linked to your car or you have CarPlay, etc then it's perfectly acceptable to listen to the text handsfree. Or have Siri/Google/Alexa read it out.

I can see the merit in countries with multiple danger-to-life weather events that come on all of a sudden. I don’t live in one of those.

Adverse events also happen in the U.K too even if generally not as often. Terrorism, gunmen, wildfires, floods, chemical spills etc.

Yes, my Mum found it very debilitating but it was part of her illnesses and the additional anxiety of her being nearly blind. Sorry if it's so hard for you to believe people can be affected like that 🙄

Call me a wuss but if there's a gunman running around shooting at random people as happened in Plymouth and Cumbria if I were in the vicinity and I'd rather know so that I can delay the walk or trip I had planned or find cover and reduce my chances of being caught up in it.

Likewise if my home is at imminent risk of falling into the sea as happened in Hemsby last week because the cliffs were collapsing I'd rather know about it asap so that I have time to evacuate. Also with the wildfires that affected parts of London last year I'd appreciate an alert so that I can get out asap rather than wait until my home is being engulfed in flames with me and my family in it.

Can’t believe people are sniffy about receiving Amber alerts for abducted children!

So there's a gunman running around and people need to hide but their phones are going like the clappers

I don’t understand why it has to be a siren sound that you can’t turn off? Ours is just a text message with a specific sound, but you can turn it off.

There must be many situations where this could actually put you in real danger? Not saying these situations are common, but they do happen. If you are hiding from a gun man or if you’re in an abusive relationship and have a second phone hidden.

😂😂😂 this is so funny. Where do you think you could go in 4 minutes or so if a nuclear bomb were to fall? Do you have a series of nuclear bunkers in your town? Plus what in the UK is really needing an alert like this? I live in an area with frequent earthquakes. They tested this alarm system and literally scrapped the plan because it caused mass panic and stress that actually caused more accidents because people were freaking out and crowing and rushing like headless chickens. It’s a bloody stupid idea and will only cause unnecessary panic.

I don’t understand why it has to be a siren sound that you can’t turn off? Ours is just a text message with a specific sound, but you can turn it off.

Last time I had a test alert. Once you tapped on it it stopped. I don't know if you can turn the sound off in advance though. I guess I'll find out on the 23rd.

Happy to receive them - as a text message, not with an accompanying siren. What do you think I'm going to do if I'm woken up?

I don’t understand why it has to be a siren sound that you can’t turn off? Ours is just a text message with a specific sound, but you can turn it off.

This is all it needs.

It’s a bloody stupid idea and will only cause unnecessary panic.

It's not foolproof of course but it seems to work well enough in the U.S. Friends in the U.S receive them for hurricanes, wildfires and tornadoes.

Plus what in the UK is really needing an alert like this

Wildfires, floods, terrorism,chemical spills, cliffs collapsing etc. (We had the latter happen in Norfolk just last week and people had to leave their homes with very little notice)

The UK siren system in the cold war was basically a one use job that used existing telephone (landline) infrastructure. In was useful to a degree and also showed the government was doing "something" about civil defense. In the cold war (and in the vanishingly small chance of a nuclear attack today) fylingdales priority was to get the info to military bunkers at Northwood and high Wycombe so our own missiles/bombs could fly before said bunkers and the radio transmitters that pass messages to submarines were destroyed (these would have been the first targets hit by incoming weapons)

Pay my phone bill and you can select what my phone gets used for. Until then - I'll disable shit I don't want quite freely. The government have plenty enough ways to get messages out if they need to - I have the radio on in the car, I have the TV news on at home, I have breaking news alerts on on my phone because I've selected that I'm happy to receive those... I don't want to get these, especially not with noises I find physically painful because of other conditions I have - and I want the ability to make the choice.

I can't quite believe how willingly people are to have the government exert control into absolutely every single element of their everyday lives. It's fucking terrifying the level of collective stupidity and begging for everyone to be controlled.

Let's be honest about the more hyperbolic examples thrown here:
Wild fires = a known risk in the centre of town where I live - not. If the conditions are heading in the way where they're likely to become a consideration - the local fire brigades are very effective at getting these messages out and about, plus work tend to send emails about the rural areas of their patch as well
Tsunamis = not really a known issue about as far inland as you can get in the UK... I'm happy to take my chances with this one
Meteors = again, see Tsunamis. Unless they're going to be accompanied by hunky action heros in skin tight white vests and an Aerosmith power ballad... I'll just go take my chances on this one
Pandemics = couldn't fucking avoid Covid shite at the best of times
Oh if it was a missing child and you're evil if you don't want those alerts pushed to your phone = meh, I follow the local police force on social media so get those alerts anyway and quit the ridiculous internet emotional blackmail to try to win your arguments here.
Nuclear apocalypse from above = I'd rather not know thank you very much - I'll take instant vaporisation over surviving with the preppers who would probably mandate clapping and piss me off while we're eating cockroaches.

Plus what in the UK is really needing an alert like this

I had an alert last week that a house nearby was on fire. To go inside and close windows etc. The house burnt down completely, with one person still inside. Also had one a couple of days ago that there was a car accident and to keep out of the way of the ambulances and fire truck and to go a different way if possible. Minutes later I could hear the sirens.

It doesn’t have to be hurricanes and nuclear bombs..

It's fucking terrifying the level of collective stupidity and begging for everyone to be controlled.

Well if you're dumb enough to want to burn to death in your own home, or drown, or find yourself in the midst of a terrorist event then so be it, so long as you get to feel superior to all those sheeple, that's what really matters.

I'm not especially worried about terrorism or fire or flooding or collapsing cliffs but I acknowledge they are rare but still very real possibilities for some, and climate change is making some of them increasingly likely but I'd rather have more time to prepare than less personally.

If there is an imminent danger, we have an outdoor warning alarm signal in the entire country (unless you live in the middle of nowhere, then you’ll receive a text message) If you hear the signal, it means there is an imminent threat to life or health. Immediately go indoors, shut windows, doors, and ventilation. Listen to the radio for more information. The signal is tested at the same time every second month.

So am I getting this right? They put out a text aimed at people who are driving?

I’ve disabled it on my iPhone.

Although it may start with telling us about nuclear attacks, the nanny state will soon be using it to tell us that it’s going to be a bit windy tomorrow or that it’s a bank holiday next Monday as well as reminding us to vote etc etc.

They won’t be able to stop themselves.

No, it is for everyone around that specific area. It doesn’t matter where you live, if you’re near an area where there is an accident you get the text alert.

I could see on app exactly which house was on fire too.

Cause I couldn't care less about your missing child and definitely don't need told about it in my bed at 4am.

I'm quite looking forward to it, but then I'm a bit strange like that!

How long before they take the advertisers money too?

It has worked very well in other countries for years, can’t see why the UK would fuck up.

I've just listened to the noise. It made me jump even though I was expecting it!
Why the dramatic alarm and not just a text message?