https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64999417

Now, I’m sure there will be incessant reminders about the event beforehand and everyone *should* know it is going to happen…. but I’m also guessing there will be some (mostly) amusing pranks/ stories doing the rounds after the event.😉

People can opt out by searching their device settings for emergency alerts and then turning off severe and extreme ones

Done

I’ll not want to be on a busy motorway at that time.

Or anywhere near a road, really.

Or trying to stealthily walk across a field with a bull in it without them noticing.

Lolz

There’ll be 40,000 London marathoners stopping to look at their phones 🙂

Or just tripping over each other while trying to get it out of their pocket and tap away at the screen.

But I’d take them and a dozen bulls over some audi wankmobile doing 90 blindly while the driver fiddles away sorting it out.

Phone users will have to acknowledge the alert before they can use other features on their devices.

This was the bit that caught my attention – it’ll be interesting to see which features are disabled.

Awaits daily alert of the number of small boats arriving in and around Dover…

In Japan they send earth quake warning alarms to mobiles. I was there a few weeks after the big quake in 2011 and the alarms went off several times ahead of aftershocks. As I wasn’t on the Japanese alert system the alarms were errmm very alarming as I had to watch the Japanese people reaction in order to know whether to carry on or dive under a desk.

I’ve had these a few times when travelling abroad. Mostly in US where they are usually state wide “look out for licence plate Xxx xx potential child abduction”. Seem like a good idea. I’m not sure what there is to be scared about?

Good idea

Overall good idea. Potential to cause more of an increase in accident / death rate than is solves though due to distraction if it is too “siren like” – thinking drivers, equipment operators (forklifts etc) – especially given that everyones phone in a given area will go off at the same time, so as above the entire motorway / busy city road has EVERY driver momentarily distracted at the same time.

I wonder if there will be a 2-tier option – a “notification” and an “alarm” – e.g. imminent flooding is unlikely to need a “stop and read me RIGHT NOW” reaction, whereas an incoming nuke (OK, unlikely) does?

Re the “small boats” comment – I really hope that it doesn’t get abused in this way, however I have a nagging feeling that it just might.

Article mention weather alerts.
So warning when there is snow, raind and wind.

People can opt out by searching their device settings for emergency alerts and then turning off severe and extreme ones

Done, I can’t really imagine a situation in the UK where this would help matters + by the time the test comes around I will have completely forgotten about it, although not being on the road that day seems to be a good plan of action.

What’s the bet that anti-vaxxers/ New World Order types will come up with some amazing conspiracies over this?😐

I can’t think of a single instance of anything where a government warning would have helped my life.

Maybe in the event of ballistic missile launches it might be a source of impending doom, but it’d detract from the ‘surprise’ IMO.

It’ll be used for “heavy rain” warnings for idiots who can’t look out of the window, or maybe people in Hebden Bridge or York who haven’t yet clocked that it floods, regularly.

Will opt out. If they manage it like APHA manage their bird flu notifications you’ll be getting “heavy snow in the cairngorms” warnings for your two-up two-down in Brighton.

In Japan they send earth quake warning alarms to mobiles. I was there a few weeks after the big quake in 2011

I was there for the main event, on a train (and on an elevated line too, which was quite wobbly). The public address systems actually give a countdown to arrival of the shock (in Japanese of course). It works very well (and was working for the pre-shock a couple of days before, it’s not just after that event).

I wonder if it will interrupt do not disturb settings on phones, or driving mode? Hopefully not.

I cannot find how to disable this on my samsung S8.  Anyone help?  Could the phone not be able to do this?  I have followed online guides and also searched settings – nothing

Edit – found it!

I can only find a setting for earth quake alerts on my phone (BV5800) which is turned off anyway. Not much of a concern where I live 😁

Yeah, definitely disabling that crap. Can’t think of a single circumstance where that would help me, but plenty where it would cause a danger. What are you supposed to do if you’re driving?

What’s the bet that anti-vaxxers/ New World Order types will come up with some amazing conspiracies over this?😐

As it’s St George’s Day, they’ll be too preoccupied with the conspiracy that you’re not allowed to be English anymore.

What are you supposed to do if you’re driving?

Carry on driving?

Carry on driving?

What if it is warning you that the bridge up ahead has collapsed? 😐

What are you supposed to do if you’re driving?

The BBC article has a link to video showing that if you’re driving you’re expected to pull over and look at the message. Definitely not a good idea to be on a motorway when it happens.

As long as they just make it a warning about something so obviously false that nobody mistakes it for reality it should be fine, maybe an invasion from Mars or something would do the trick.

The BBC article has a link to video showing that if you’re driving you’re expected to pull over and look at the message. Definitely not a good idea to be on a motorway when it happens.

Which no doubt is why they included the comment “if it is safe to do so”.

wonder if it will interrupt do not disturb settings on phones, or driving mode? Hopefully not

Article says it will breakthrough

Carry on driving

Have you heard what it sounds like? You tube link in the bbc article. It’d be hard to tune that racket out. I wonder if handling the phone to silence it comes within the emergency exemptions. Doubt it.

I would love to see the risk assessment on this test – machinery, drivers, panic reactions? Given how people freak out at having to park outside someone else’s house it doesn’t say calm and collected response to me!

maybe an invasion from Mars or something would do the trick.

War of the Worlds intro for the test message. Like that 😂

Have you heard what it sounds like?

Yeah, it sounded like a mobile phone making a noise, for 10 seconds apparently. I reckon that I could carry on driving quite easily if it happened.

I don’t necessarily stop doing whatever I’m doing every time my phone makes a noise. That could be dangerous.

I don’t understand how this is supposed to work. It doesn’t require an app, but has the ability to override your phone’s volume settings and can lock you out until you’ve acknowledged it? Sure, that’s totally not disturbing at all.

Cougar
Full Member
I don’t understand how this is supposed to work. It doesn’t require an app, but has the ability to override your phone’s volume settings and can lock you out until you’ve acknowledged it? Sure, that’s totally not disturbing at all.

Somewhere on my Pixel there is a setting for emergency alerts, that said, I’m guessing there are many mobiles that don’t so your point is still valid.

Well, it won’t work on my mum’s Nokia feature(less) phone.

My point really is that this feature exists, no-one knows about it, and the government has access to it. I’ve found the settings on my own phone now, seems it’s baked into the OS.

I had this on my phone in Seoul when covid was getting going and it is disconcerting the first couple of times. Like anything though, after that you just ignore it.

it is disconcerting the first couple of times. Like anything though, after that you just ignore it.

Which no doubt is one of the reasons for the test on a Sunday in April.

It doesn’t require an app, but has the ability to override your phone’s volume settings and can lock you out until you’ve acknowledged it? Sure, that’s totally not disturbing at all.

You can always wrap your phone in tinfoil when you’re not using it so that you can’t be tracked. Problem is that mobile phones are designed to find the strongest signal and lock to that, so they are inherently traceable. Smartphones with auto-update features (which most people want) require that you give the phone company access to the phone’s admin settings. If you’re going to be crimeing (or just pissing off totalitarian governments in general), best to leave your phone at home.

I’m guessing there are many mobiles that don’t

On Android just open settings and search for ‘Alert’.

I’ve switched off severe and left extreme.

They’re just checking it works…. I doubt they’ll ever use it.

But if they do it will probably be linked to Putin!

That was easy. Settings, alerts, emergency alerts off.

so far nobody on here has provided an example which would make me opt-in
my view being that its more likely to be misused and/or nuisance than beneficial, in full understanding that some on here will declare that kind of thinking conspiracy/nutjob, meh.

Dirty bomb being exploded in London? I’m inn SE so I’d want to know.

Not as far fetched as it sounds with Iran recently testing our border controls with an irradiated cargo of metal.

What could possibly go wrong?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-42679614

At least they got a show out of it…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0018zpw/storyville-on-the-morning-you-wake-to-the-end-of-the-world