Emergency Alerts On Mobile Phones

[webbo3]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64999417

//A siren-like alert will be sent to mobile phone users across the UK next month to test a new government public warning system.//

//Phone users will have to acknowledge the alert before they can use other features on their devices.//

//A message will appear on the home screens of people's devices during the test, with vibration and a loud warning sound that will ring for about 10 seconds, even if the phone is set to silent.//

//People can opt out by searching their device settings for emergency alerts and then turning off severe and extreme ones. Officials say the alerts could be life-saving, though, advising against switching them off.//

Anyone turning the alerts off, I am.

[lankeela]

If Putin presses the button the last thing we will need to worry about is our phones pinging.

[tomus42]

It's always around this time of year you see stories like this and check to see if April 1st has come sooner than you thought.

[El73]

Turning off. Too intrusive. It's happening I've heard on 24 April but not to everyone. At random

[barry1010]

They are not in any way intrusive, the alert will be sent by mass signal from the relevant transmitters to all phones in the area, not individual phone numbers.

[barry1010]

23rd April, early evening

[naomi24]

//They are not in any way intrusive//

If they prevent people from using their phone unless they respond to them, then they're intrusive.

[perseverer]

Responding means touching dismiss

[naomi24]

What it involves is irrelevant. It shouldn't happen.

[barry1010]

The idea of people turning alerts off makes me laugh because it seems to me that everyone 'needs' to know what's going on - the great fear of missing out.
My local news and information groups frequently have posts from folk wanting to know why the police helicopter/air ambulance/fire engines were whizzing past their houses or what happened to the strangers involved in a car accident they were driving past or heard about.

I can't imagine a person on a bus with the alerts turned off ignoring all the alerts going off around them. They'd probably be stamping their feet after the event, demanding 'why wasn't I told?'

[jourdain2]

Well, if I turn mine on I'll have proof positive that there is no mobile signal in our house. So will a lot of others in our village. Maybe then we'll get some action on increasing coverage.
It does seem intrusive. What's wrong with sirens (they still exist, or did a few years ago) and ringing church bells?

[barry1010]

Sirens and church bells don’t give any indication of the nature of the emergency

[bednobs]

eek are there an army of church bell ringers just waiting to ring bells in an emergency? How do you let them know to do it if not by contacting them on their mobiles?