HACKER Q&A
📣 TuringNYC

Emergency Alerts – Some phones get it, some dont?


As some may have heard there were tornados and flooding in NY/NJ and many areas of the northeastern US. Over a dozen died.

My mom, wife, and I were all sitting at a dining table together when this all happened yesterday evening. My mom's Android phone received over a dozen Emergency Alerts on the tornados and floods.

My iPhone received three alerts. My wife's iPhone received one only.

All our phones have all Notifications enabled, including Emergency Alerts and Public Safety Alerts. We were all on the same WIFI network.

Whey would there be such big differences in what each of us received?


  👤 codegeek Accepted Answer ✓
Not sure about how automated alerts work but I suggest manually subscribing to your local emergency websites. For example, I am subscribed to https://www.nixle.com/ which subscribes you to local emergency alerts. I received notifications from them in addition to the default ones.

👤 mikewarot
I get emergency alerts way too often, for missing persons. I wish I could turn them off, as they never apply to my safety, or any situation I could actually help solve.

👤 PaulHoule
Which carriers were you on?