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Tens of millions of phones will receive an emergency alert today as the government tests the system nationwide for the first time.
At 3 p.m., a distinct sound and vibration will accompany a message telling people that a new service has been launched that will “warn you if there is a life-threatening emergency nearby.”
You will be prompted to tap OK or swipe up before you can continue using your device.
Ministers hope the public will get used to the look and sound of alerts, in case they need to be sent in the future during crises such as severe weather, floods and fires.
But critics said the alerts themselves could put people’s safety at risk, including drivers who might be distracted and domestic violence victims who keep a secret phone.
Image: The emergency alert will look like this
The company behind the UK’s alert system has been working on the same technology for other governments, insisting it would be a “game changer” for public safety.
Everbridge has already deployed it in countries like Germany, Spain, New Zealand and Singapore.
“We’ve got church bells, fires and smoke signals; humans have been alerting residents for centuries in many ways and this is the next generation,” Valerie Riske, vice president of public safety systems, told Sky News.
How does the technology work?
Emergency alerts are broadcast over cellphone towers and work on all 4G and 5G phone networks.
This differs from the way the government sent out lockdown orders during the pandemic, when SMS messages were sent directly to phone numbers.
This means whoever is sending an alert doesn’t need your number, so it’s not something you need to respond to, and you won’t get a voicemail if you miss it.
No other location or data will be collected either.
Anyone within range of the mast will receive an alert, and it can be set based on geography – Manchester residents, for example, won’t need an alert about life-threatening flooding in Cornwall.
Manuel Cornelis, senior director of public warnings at Everbridge, told Sky News the technology has proven its value in other countries, including his home country of the Netherlands.
“It’s a very well-proven technology of very high quality,” he said.
“Because it’s part of the signal’s highest priority, service will always be available, even if the network is congested when there is heavy use (such as sports stadiums).”
Read more: How emergency alerts work in other countries
0:48 “The sound that can save your life”
Could it go wrong?
There have been instances of emergency alerts that will not go unplanned.
In 2020, an emergency alert warning millions of people of an “accident” at a nuclear power plant near Toronto in Canada is triggered by mistake.
Two years earlier, Hawaiian authorities had mistakenly warned people of an incoming ballistic missile attack.
And Florida residents had a rude awakening this week, when a test alert accidentally went off at 4.45am.
The state has contracted Everbridge for the emergency alert system since 2016, and Gov. Ron DeSantis has called for “swift accountability” for the error.
Lorenzo Marchetti, the company’s director of public affairs, said the Florida system uses different technology than the one in the UK, but conceded that it is not immune to human error.
“We are investigating, it appears to have been an unfortunate procedural error in sending the message,” he said.
“Sometimes these kinds of things may be beyond the control of the technology itself.”
Ms Riske said that the transmission of messages is “closely managed and regulated”, and that errors were “very rare”.
Sending alerts requires high level security access, and there is a confirmation prompt before they are sent.
“Please don’t turn it off.”
Incidents like the one in Florida might give skeptics one more reason to turn off alerts.
Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden urged people not to apply ahead of Sunday’s test, which will be dispatched from a National Status Center inside the Cabinet Office.
What would the test message say?
“This is a test of Emergency Alerts, a new British government service that will warn you if there is a life-threatening emergency nearby.
In a real emergency, follow the instructions in the alert to keep yourself and others safe. Visit gov.uk/alerts for more information.
“This is a test. You don’t need to take any action.”
It would be like taking the batteries out of a smoke alarm, warned Roger Hargreaves, director of the government’s Cobra Emergency Committee.
He added, “The message that people receive through this system is the message that contains information that is useful to them, helps protect lives and limbs, and specifies specific actions that we would like them to take.”
How to turn off the alarm
Despite pleas from the government, domestic violence charities are concerned the alert could reveal secret phones hidden by abused people.
If you’re interested, it’s easy to turn them off.
On iOS and Android devices, look in the Emergency Alerts settings and turn off Severe Alerts and Emergency Alerts.
On Huawei devices running EMUI 11 or earlier, find the Emergency Alerts settings and turn off Severe threats, Severe threats, and Show amber alerts.
The other option is to turn off the device completely or put it on airplane mode before 3 p.m.
Will alerts be used often?
Ministers insisted that the alerts would only be sent in “life-threatening” situations.
But those behind the system have seen increased adoption by governments in recent years, with the pandemic and climate emergencies increasing the need for direct communication with the public.
The European Union introduced a directive requiring member states to have a phone-based public alert system.
Technology will continue to improve, said Ms Riske, with satellite being the potential next frontier after being rolled out to some smartphones to help people get emergency help without any portable antennas nearby.
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