A national UK Emergency Alert test is due to take place on Sunday 23rd April 2023 at 3pm. This is a test of the system which will be deployed in case of future national emergencies.
It involves an automatic notification to all mobile phones, on all networks, in the form of an alert sound.
If you have children who may have devices you might want to let them know the alert is sounding at 15:00 on Sunday and not to be afraid as this is a test alarm.
If you are aware of any person known or thought to be vulnerable, or who are or you suspect they may be living with an abusive partner, please make them aware discretely that:
- that the alert will sound even if a phone is switched to silent
- and how to turn off receiving the emergency alert.
To turn off the alert on an android phone:
- Go to settings
- Type emergency in the search bar and emergency alert should appear as an option
- Select emergency alerts
- This should take you to a page titled either emergency alerts or broadcast settings
- Click or tap on the blue toggle beside emergency alerts to switch the option off. It will turn grey, and the alert will be switched off.
To turn off the alert on an iPhone:
- Open the settings app
- Select notifications, a red square with a white bell
- Scroll down the notifications screen to the bottom to find emergency alerts
- Tap the toggles to turn the emergency alerts off. They will turn grey, and the alerts will be switched off.