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.

Presumably their secret phone already has sound off in all possible ways. And it’s already been noted up-thread that the alert can be disabled

Ive tried to disable it from my samsung. Apparently its supposed to be under wireless emergency alerts. All i can find is media sounds.

This is why I questioned the loud noice. It’s not what we have. There are also warnings on the radio. Not everyone has to have it. People I know find it useful. The UK version might not be the same.

No we were not out watching. Like the message said we stayed out of their road and closed our windows.

Ive found Alarms and disabled it No wireless emergency alerts though. Mind you i have had this phone since February 2020 and ive not internet enabled it.

@MereDintofPandiculation ive just struggled to disable mine I THINK ive done it but i cant be sure. Im not in an abusive situation but someone who is

and who is not very tech minded like me might struggle Still im sure women who are in an abusive situation have got plenty of time to piss about with a phone they are trying to hide.

@CoffeeWithCheese I totally agree

I'd imagine they've decided on a siren and not a text so that people can't sleep through it, even if their phone is on silent. Although I'm surprised a bad conscience doesn't keep some people on here awake, you must be a bitter old fruit if you won't help a missing vulnerable person.

I'm sure people did grumble and curse at being woken up for an air raid when no bombs actually landed in their street, on that occasion.

I sometimes wonder how our society would cope faced what that generation had to put up with. I don't understand the anxiety issues either, it actually makes me feel better knowing that if there's ever a real reason I need to avoid a danger, I will hear about it.

I have discussed these alarms with my teens though, so they are prepared, and because they aren't always by my side. I've told them if they get one and it tells them to stay indoors, or whatever, they should follow that advice rather than wait and see what dad says, or worry that their teacher will be annoyed they are late, etc. Have explained only authorities will issue these and that they should consider them an instruction from the police and not just ignore them.

of course it is not funny. I am not talking about a nuclear bomb, but conventional airstrikes. Putin has already missed Ukraine by two countries at least once.

tsunami alert, The Uk is historically vulnerable to tsunamis, but having not experienced them in the last 500 years, there is no warning system in place

Meteor strike, can happen anywhere

Wild fires, this alarm system would have been helpful and useful last summer

You are silly to be laughing

I think a lot of people in the UK just take our recent incredible good fortune for granted

'
😂😂😂 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? '

To be fair most towns in the UK do have bomb shelters that might be worth hiding in,

Found mute alerts and media and thats the closest i can find

Happy to have it - common in the US . Early warnings are good in my opinion

I live in a country where we have this (since 2018). In that time it's gone off twice a year as a test and 4 other times for a particular reason: once with covid (first week in lockdown); once for extreme weather warning people to stay inside; twice for large local fires where toxic smoke was being emitted telling people to close windows and stay indoors.

It is really bewildering when it goes off when you're in a large group/public place and your phone is on silent (once in a large work meeting with 20+ people and once in the cinema!).

Its the fact that it will disable my phone until ive acknowledged it Im worried it will fuck up my phone.

We experienced the same, it was really loud too.

Good for you OP. Let’s hope you’re never in a situation where you end up in danger because you didn’t receive the warning and someone has to risk their life to rescue you.

War is more than one year and they introducing this alert system now? There is definitely something not told for public. Anyway, I'll switch it off. No point.

Stop fear mongering. The alert system was announced in may 2021

I thought some areas were testing today? I switched them off but I was annoyed as I did that last week and it was somehow on again.

I'm not great at tech but might be able to help as I switched off mine, have ancient iPhone SE.

If you’re using google maps then you’d probs see the notification come up on the phone then, would you not? Or on the digital screen of your cars media display if you’re fancy.

@JenniferBooth if you click the link OP gave for the gov website it’s just an “ok” button. Why would that fuck up your phone??

You won't be able to use it till the alert is acknowledged

if phone is in a work locker or something, does it just keep going and use the battery?

Turn it off if it’s in the locker - easy fix.

I live in a country which has this system, as well as very loud emergency sirens. In the two years I have lived here it's gone off once, there was a big fire in a chemical factory and we had to close our windows.

The alerts are tested three times a year and the sirens every month.