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How to Enable and Disable Critical Alerts in iOS 12

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Apr 12, 2001
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In iOS 12, Apple added several new ways for users to control how and when they receive app notifications, including the ability to group notifications and change their behavior on the fly with Instant Tuning. A lesser known feature in this subset of options is called Critical Alerts. So what are they exactly?

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The idea behind Critical Alerts is that if specific apps have crucial information that shouldn't be ignored - notifications related to health, home security, or public safety, for example - then you'll be alerted regardless of your other device settings.

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To that end, Critical Alerts override the Do Not Disturb feature if you have it enabled on your iPhone or iPad, and will even arrive with an audio alert when your device is muted.

Naturally, the Critical Alerts feature is going to have limited use - you'd only want appropriate apps to have access to it (think glucose monitoring or weather warning apps) which is why Apple requires that developers apply for an entitlement to support them.

For that reason, there aren't a whole lot of apps that support these alerts just yet, but if you do come across one that advertises Critical Alerts, you still get to choose whether to enable them or not. Here's how.

How to Disable or Enable Critical Alerts in iOS 12
  1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
  2. Tap Notifications.
  3. Select the app from the list that you want to enable/disable Critical Alerts for.
  4. Toggle the Critical Alerts switch on/off.
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Article Link: How to Enable and Disable Critical Alerts in iOS 12
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/control-critical-alerts-in-ios-12/
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Macrumors, have you heard about iPhone XS&Max issues with 802.11ac WiFi over MikroTik wireless access points ? First time ever when a new iPhone is massively not working with popular network vendor.
 
I would like this for my alarm through SimpliSafe. However, there is no option for it at the moment. If there’s a break in at the office it would be nice. Apple has making it a strict opt-in feauture that needs their approval is a terrible decision. Let the user decide what is and isn’t critical by enabling it for everything.
 
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hansenc said:
Seriously an app has to apply for the entitlement to support critical alerts??? Turn it off by default and let me decide what is critical and what isn't.
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I agree, this is a cool feature, but so many apps will never get approval from apple for this feature. Or at least it will take a while to adopt. I’d like to have my security system notifications override DND, but I’ll have to wait for them to support it. Users should have the ability to elevate notifications to this level.
 
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Now if only this could be applied to government alerts. I got three loud horrific sounding alerts, in the middle of the night, for a missing child. Ok, that's serious. But... it happened 800 miles away, in a different province (state) and they knew that the getaway car was low on gas. If that's how the government is going to hijack my phone to send alerts, please, Apple, put them in their place (I realize they can't actually do this without breaking the law, because it is to do with regulation, I'm just airing my malcontent). They did find the child - apparently whoever stole the car she was in didn't realize anyone was in the back.
 
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freezah said:
Macrumors, have you heard about iPhone XS&Max issues with 802.11ac WiFi over MikroTik wireless access points ? First time ever when a new iPhone is massively not working with popular network vendor.
Click to expand...
No issues with Mikrotik running 802.11ac here. I changed disconnect timeout to 10sec for low power with WMM to stop disconnects and a few other tweaks for better performance but had not issues since changing to Xs
 
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jimjiminyjim said:
Now if only this could be applied to government alerts. I got three loud horrific sounding alerts, in the middle of the night, for a missing child. Ok, that's serious. But... it happened 800 miles away, in a different province (state) and they knew that the getaway car was low on gas. If that's how the government is going to hijack my phone to send alerts, please, Apple, put them in their place (I realize they can't actually do this without breaking the law, because it is to do with regulation, I'm just airing my malcontent). They did find the child - apparently whoever stole the car she was in didn't realize anyone was in the back.
Click to expand...
Not sure about Canada, but here in the US, we can disable AMBER alerts like this:

https://www.imore.com/amber-alerts-your-iphone-what-they-are-and-how-manage-them

Maybe Canada has them done differently, though. Our new IPAWS Wireless Emergency Alerts can't be turned off, as far as I know, as they're supposed to be used for huge apocalyptic type emergencies.

Here in the NYC area, we get "flash flood alerts" so often when there are thunderstorms that I've started kind of ignoring them, honestly.
 
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