Introduction
If you recently received a pop-up notification on your smartphone stating “Emergency Alert: Severe”, then you are not alone. The notification also displays the text, “It is a test alert from the Department of Telecommunication (DoT), Govt of India”. For all those who are wondering what his message is, here’s an explanation about the emergency alert.
The message broadcasted by DoT is intended to alert citizens about natural calamities such as waterlogging during monsoon. The messages that were seen lately could also be the department testing the alert system to ensure its reachability by sending demo alerts, or this could be an actual alert about an extreme threat. In case of a demo, the notification indicates it as demo.
Government bodies use wireless emergency alert technology, enabled by default on Android and iOS devices to deliver instant critical updates to its people. This service will mostly be used in emergencies to keep citizens informed and safe.
One can easily disable wireless emergency alert notification settings to stop receiving these updates. However, given this is a critical service, we recommend users keep this feature enabled to receive key updates from the relevant authorities.
How to disable wireless emergency alerts on your iPhone?
Go to Settings > Notifications > and disable Government Alerts to stop receiving these messages.
How to disable wireless emergency alerts on Android smartphones?
On Android, it varies from brand to brand.
On most Android smartphones, Go to Settings > Safety and Emergency > Wireless emergency alerts and disable it. It also allows users to disable individual options like extreme threats, severe threats, AMBER alerts, and test alerts.
Article Source: indianexpress.com
