Forum Discussion
UK government emergency alert
Hi all,
Following the emergency alerts test on Sunday, we’ve been working with the government and have identified a technical issue that meant some of our customers didn’t receive the alert. This morning (24th of April) our engineers deployed a fix meaning there will be no issue with future alerts.
Well let's look at some logical points shall we?
There is no way the gov can possibly have software patches for every type of device and OS and frankly I'm worried that scammers are going to use scare tactics like this to get malware and so on to peoples devices. Please do NOT download everything. What they mean by MUST ACCEPT is because it's an EMERGENCY alert you must just respond to it on your device. As in dismiss. this isn't gov spying this is to stop you letting that beatboxing cat on tiktok pop up and you don't see the flood alert etc.
The emergency system is used a lot in the USA and iphones and android support those notifications natively. You might get a surprise if you go on holiday and there is a warning. And if you're there the same thing happens. Just acknowledge it which doesn't send or download anything.
Please do NOT download ANYTHING. This is ripe for fraud at the moment.
If your phone is from the dark ages then it simply won't get the alert.
Yes Mhisani, scammers could use this as an opportunity to trick people. As you say, there is no need to download anything.
Most modern mobile handsets have been designed to receive an emergency alert via a cell broadcast, without needing to download or patch anything on the handset. I guess older handsets won't receive the alert.
These emergency alert messages are just mobile network cell broadcast messages, which are limited to maximum of 1395 characters. A cell broadcast is basically a special type of SMS message.
