What do emergency alerts achieve?

When the history books are written about the 2020s, they’ll encapsulate a period of pronounced anxiety and fear.

From pandemic lockdowns to the return of war in Europe, the last five years have seen numerous examples of social decay, breakdown in civic trust and rejection of authority.

It would be fair to describe the national mood as pessimistic, anxious and distrustful – not an ideal time for our phones and mobile devices to start broadcasting emergency alerts.

However, that’s exactly what will happen next month, as part of a national test of the Emergency Alert service via the nation’s 4G and 5G mobile networks.

At 3pm on Thursday the 7th of September, the UK’s 87 million mobile devices will simultaneously vibrate, blare out a siren and display a message.

Those of us able to view our handset screens will see a message stating it is a test, rather than a genuine cause for panic, though some consumer anxiety is inevitable.

No need for alarm

The emergency alert system has been developed in case of a crisis, such as approaching extreme weather conditions or a major military incident.

It’s a measure of the volatile times we live in that such a system is deemed necessary at all, let alone requiring periodic testing.

The last national alert test took place in April 2023, but since then, there have been five occasions when messages have been broadcast to specific regions.

These instances ranged from storm notifications across Wales to the discovery of an unexploded World War II bomb in Plymouth.

On such occasions, local cell towers are instructed to distribute messages across affected areas.

All mobile devices will receive these alerts and no data is recorded or sent back, so individual devices can’t be tracked or identified.

It’s also important to note that home broadband services aren’t involved, so laptops and desktops won’t join in the chorus – nor will smart speakers or other Internet of Things devices.

The forthcoming phone alert test has been described by the Government as the equivalent of pressing the button on a smoke alarm, to ensure it works as and when it’s needed.

Were the system to be used in earnest, it would involve a threat to life. It hasn’t been developed for riot control, commemorating events or reminding people to vote at elections.

Can I opt out of the test?

By definition, disabling your device’s ability to receive emergency alerts isn’t recommended.

However, there are a couple of workarounds.

Firstly, you could set any mobile devices to Airplane mode, which would prevent incoming alert instructions from being received.

Secondly, you could turn the device off altogether, though this would obviously preclude its use and prevent calls and messages getting through.

Thirdly, there is a way to disable emergency alerts on both Android and iOS handsets.

Anyone with a device running Android 15 should go to Settings > Safety and Emergency > Wireless Emergency Alerts, and toggle off the Allow Alerts radio button.

Apple customers using iOS 18.5 can locate the corresponding radio button at Settings > Notifications > Extreme Alerts (beneath the list of installed apps).

It might be argued that storms are advertised well in advance, while bombs tend to be immediately cordoned off without having to warn an entire county about their discovery.

Being aware of the upcoming alert means it hopefully won’t startle you too much – and if you’re driving or operating machinery, try not to be unduly distracted…