Here in England we'll be getting an emergency alarm sent to our smart phones and android phones. It's planned for 23rd April 2023. It's just a test project at the min but will be used in the future in real emergencies where peoples lives are at risk, like an early warning system. So I'm just wondering is it only happening here or is it worldwide?
That date seems to be an England-only test right now, Jessica, but we do have such a system here...I've received tornado warnings over mine. I have seen the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS) get tested [rarely] on my phone and monthly (as required by law) on my telly. We also have Amber Alerts, which are child abduction alerts sent over the EBS. It stands for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response, and is a "backronym" named after Amber Hagerman, a girl who was abducted and later found murdered in 1996. A few states have their own name for these abduction alerts, each named after a similar local abductee.
We get silver alerts and Amber alerts on our cell phones. Silver alerts are for lost geezers, mentally ill, etc. Amber alerts are usually child abductions. Both will have some descriptive elements included, make model of car, license tag, clothing worn, etc. They are loud and sometime make us, and the cats, jump. Those are the only two types I’ve received so far.
I almost forgot... The Florida Division of Emergency Management tested their system today...at 4:45AM!!! It was supposed to be a test over the television, but it went over cell phones instead. Every cell phone in Florida homes went off. They sent out an apologetic Tweet. Note that it had 935 replies as of this screenshot.
I have a "do not disturb" set on my iphone so that I don't get any kind of alarms between 11 p.m. and 9 a.m. I also turned off every alarm setting I could find, so I don't get the AMBER alerts or other B.S.
I think the British alert testing is linked to threats from Russia. Russia and China have systems that direct people to the nearest shelter.