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Apple Adds 'Test Alerts' Toggle to iPhone Just in Case You Really Want to Receive Test Emergency Alerts
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Yeah, they test the city's alert system here every week on a Wednesday at 12PM. They do it on the TV and radio around a similar time too. So this is just an extension of that.
When this alert system was first added several years ago, one day my phone emitted a surprisingly loud sound for an amber alert. I realize that the whole point of an amber alert is to get it out in front of as many people as possible, but I'm sorry, I don't want my phone to start loudly beeping like this in the middle of an inappropriate moment, so I promptly turned it off.
I do now see an option for "Emergency Alerts" to be delivered silently, but does that also make amber alerts silent? The way the UI presents it, it doesn't look like that's the case. It should be an option though. Yes, in terms of effectiveness of the amber alert, having every single person's phone beep loudly to call immediate attention to it is ideal, but if 75% of those people aren't willing to tolerate this and disable the alert completely, giving those people the option of a silent notification would be better than nothing.
I do now see an option for "Emergency Alerts" to be delivered silently, but does that also make amber alerts silent? The way the UI presents it, it doesn't look like that's the case. It should be an option though. Yes, in terms of effectiveness of the amber alert, having every single person's phone beep loudly to call immediate attention to it is ideal, but if 75% of those people aren't willing to tolerate this and disable the alert completely, giving those people the option of a silent notification would be better than nothing.
These are two different alerts. There is also a "Presidential Alert" that cannot be disabled. That's the one for nuclear / zombie / whatever apocalypse.
Like everyone else sadly I have to disable Amber alerts because they are useless and extremely disruptive.
I've already turned off all Amber, Emergency and Safety alerts because agencies misuse these all the time.
- Alerts for something hundreds of miles away
- Sending of empty alerts
- Alert said we needed to evacuate the area ASAP that turned out to be a drill
- The same alert going off every 5 minutes for hours
I can't imagine the noise created by enabling test alerts....
These agencies should re-read The Boy Who Cried Wolf.
- Alerts for something hundreds of miles away
- Sending of empty alerts
- Alert said we needed to evacuate the area ASAP that turned out to be a drill
- The same alert going off every 5 minutes for hours
I can't imagine the noise created by enabling test alerts....
These agencies should re-read The Boy Who Cried Wolf.
I really like the CONCEPT of mobile emergency alerts, including Amber Alerts. The implementation, however, is unbelievably awful.
For one, it seems hit or miss as to whether phones will even receive them. We have two iPhones, one 8 and one SE 2020, both on the same carrier, both were sitting two feet from each other. Both had the same settings. My iPhone 8 received a set of recent alerts, the other iPhone SE 2020 did not. No explanation.
Another time we both received a push alert telling us about an urgent need to shelter-in-place... a couple of hours after the incident had concluded. And no, we never received an "all clear," so I guess I'm still supposed to be hiding in my safe place a few months later...
Then there's the content. Half the time, it's almost indecipherable... one recent was something like "BOLO BM LSW RED/BLUE INV IN PURSUIT. CALL IF SEEN." Ok, after translating ("Be on the lookout for a black male last seen wearing red and blue involved in a pursuit") I'm left thinking "Great, I'm supposed to call... someone.. if I see a black guy ANYWHERE wearing red and blue?"
Finally, it's incredibly frustrating that they're ALL accompanied by the "end of the world apocalypse" EAS 853 Hz and 960 Hz tones. Those tones should be reserved for something where I, personally, am potentially about to be in a life-threatening emergency. I get it, a kid being abducted is urgent, and I'd be glad to keep my eyes open if I'm out and about... but it's not a life threatening emergency FOR ME. Come up with a better tone for those.
For one, it seems hit or miss as to whether phones will even receive them. We have two iPhones, one 8 and one SE 2020, both on the same carrier, both were sitting two feet from each other. Both had the same settings. My iPhone 8 received a set of recent alerts, the other iPhone SE 2020 did not. No explanation.
Another time we both received a push alert telling us about an urgent need to shelter-in-place... a couple of hours after the incident had concluded. And no, we never received an "all clear," so I guess I'm still supposed to be hiding in my safe place a few months later...
Then there's the content. Half the time, it's almost indecipherable... one recent was something like "BOLO BM LSW RED/BLUE INV IN PURSUIT. CALL IF SEEN." Ok, after translating ("Be on the lookout for a black male last seen wearing red and blue involved in a pursuit") I'm left thinking "Great, I'm supposed to call... someone.. if I see a black guy ANYWHERE wearing red and blue?"
Finally, it's incredibly frustrating that they're ALL accompanied by the "end of the world apocalypse" EAS 853 Hz and 960 Hz tones. Those tones should be reserved for something where I, personally, am potentially about to be in a life-threatening emergency. I get it, a kid being abducted is urgent, and I'd be glad to keep my eyes open if I'm out and about... but it's not a life threatening emergency FOR ME. Come up with a better tone for those.
Just turn them all off. These things are so loud and intrusive that if anyone near you have them on you will hear them anyway.
They are very dangerous for drivers and heart patients. I hope they do a study on how many people these alerts kill vs save each year.
They are very dangerous for drivers and heart patients. I hope they do a study on how many people these alerts kill vs save each year.
Two problems:
(a) the sound used by the test alerts is astonishingly loud and jolting. It's seriously a driving hazard in that, if you hear it while driving, there's a non-trivial chance you will be so startled you will cause an accident.
(b) in the past the alerts have been trivial nonsense (amber alert type stuff) that has provided zero value.
IF these things are limited to genuine public safety issues once a year, and IF they are vetted by someone with enough sense to understand that scaring a driver into having an accident is not a good idea, then fine, keep them on. But the past few years of how they have been used have not been impressive...
Bad title. It’s pretty obvious that the toggle isn’t there because people “really want to see test alerts,” but to provide clarity that the other categories do not include test alerts.
Yes, those alerts can cause accidents and deaths not related to the nature of those alerts themselves, like driving accidents and heart attacks.
Moreover, since the alerts are all or nothing -- you cannot turn off the sound -- it causes many people to turn them off who would otherwise leave them on. Therefore, they in fact allow deaths and crimes that would otherwise be prevented by these very alerts if they would allow user adjustments like turning off the sound.
The man who would have seen that alert about the kidnapped kid 10 minutes or 1 hour after the alert was sent instead of 1 second after, now would not see that alert at all because he had to turn it off completely to avoid affecting his job and his sanity.
Students, movie goers, restaurant goers, doctors, workers in hundreds of different situations, all need to turn these off because these alerts break through all silence settings unless you turn them off completely. Especially when the amber alerts are often not precise and relate to some incident 500 miles away. And then the kidnapped kid has to do without the help he otherwise would have received. So in being so pushy these alerts ironically do more harm than good.
Then there is that recent lawsuit about the ruptured eardrums caused by an alert... What I am suggesting is just the tip of the iceberg.
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i want to decide when and if i want to receive emergency alerts. this should be a setting. let users decide. some people think this is amazing. some do not. let the user decide. i'm in canada. they like sending these and i personally don't like receiving them. sure if there's a bombing or something maybe i'll turn it on if some enemy hasn't jammed my phone using it.
It’s not just Canada overusing these alerts. I was in Korea for a couple of weeks in May and the damn things were literally going off every 30-60 minutes- as near as I can tell most of them had something to do with Covid alerts in cities up to 150 miles away.
Had to completely shut this stuff off.
Had to completely shut this stuff off.
I really only want them for a tornado warning, and not when said tornado is 5 counties away and not moving in my direction.
Anyone heard the story about the boy who cried "Wolf"?
Send many useless alerts during the middle of the night and people, then, ignore them and they become useless because people ignore them.
One only needs "screaming alerts" for potential disasters and those could easily be sent only to the cell towers within the area.
Others, Amber, Silver, etc could be received by the phone only when "do not disturb" is on, but that would be way too logical for local "gubberment officials".
Send many useless alerts during the middle of the night and people, then, ignore them and they become useless because people ignore them.
One only needs "screaming alerts" for potential disasters and those could easily be sent only to the cell towers within the area.
Others, Amber, Silver, etc could be received by the phone only when "do not disturb" is on, but that would be way too logical for local "gubberment officials".
canada abuses this by making every tiny family quarrel on the same emergency level as a nuclear warning. doesn’t matter if you have health issues, you better be woken up in both english and french for every alert hundreds of miles away.
That all sounds a little sensational to me. The lawsuit involves AirPods, and there is only one of those. That case is not decided and in fact blames the AirPods not the alert.
The rest of your post is hyperbole.
That’s unfortunate. You would think they would realize that this just leads to alert fatigue and causes people to ignore everything so they won’t be prepared when a real alert comes.
I wish I could turn these off. One summer when I was stuck in middle of nowhere Ontario for work there was 3-4 of these irritating child custody dispute / lost senior citizen alerts within the period of a month, all in the middle of the night. It's a serious problem for someone who already has insomnia issues.
On my phone, Amber alerts are separate from Emergency alerts. I have Amber turned off and Emergency turned on.