Emergency Alert: What you need to know

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On Sunday 23 April there will be a national UK Emergency Alert test. This new Emergency Alert system is being rolled out by the government and will notify all phones with an alert sound – including when they are on silent.
We are aware that such an alert, including the sound, could cause anxiety for a number of vulnerable people including those with a learning disability, those with autism or victims and survivors of domestic abuse who have a secret phone that they may hide from an abusive partner. 

What You Need To Know: 

  • The alert will be sent to everyone on Sunday 23rd April 2023 at around 3pm. 
  • The alert will include a text message, vibrations and a siren noise for 10 seconds. 
  • You will not receive the alert if your phone is on airplane mode, turned off, is Wi-fi only or is incompatible. 


How To Opt-Out: 

  1. Search your phone settings for ’emergency alerts’ 
  2. Turn off ‘severe alerts’ and ‘extreme alerts’ 


Refuge has kindly provided a video to inform victims and survivors how to ensure their secret phone does not play the notifying sound and become detected: https://youtu.be/u7jsz8H-muo

Thank you to VSI Alliance for sharing this information

This entry was posted in Announcements.