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What to Do When You Get an Android or iPhone Amber Alert

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iPhone Amber Alerts automatically push important alerts about missing children directly to iPhones causing phones to emit a loud noise and display a small alert on-screen.

U.S. carriers now send mobile Amber Alerts and other important emergency alerts to the iPhone 4 through iPhone 7 and to most Android smartphones. These alerts often incldue vehicle information, but the same tool can send weather alerts as well.

This is an important tool for helping identify and track down missing children, but the alerts don’t always include all the information users need to be of help to officials.

Sample iPhone Amber alert.

Sample iPhone Amber alert.

If you receive an Android or iPhone Amber Alert, there will be a small amount of information such as a child’s description or the description of a car and a license plate, but not much else. The Amber Alert on iPhone is limited to a certain number of characters like a text message. The alerts show up on the lock screen and Notification Center with a hazard triangle next to it to indicate this is an emergency alert.

There is no charge for Amber Alerts on the iPhone when delivered through this method. This Emergency alert method also covers weather related emergencies, though it does not cover things like a Thunderstorm warning.

Sample Android amber alert.

Sample Android amber alert.

Users will see an Amber Alert on the iPhone based on their location, which means if an Amber Alert is issued in New York City while you are traveling there, you will see an alert, even if your billing zip code is in Ohio. Emergency alerts work the same way.

If you get an iPhone Amber Alert, the best place to go for more information is AmberAlert.gov and MissingKids.com. Both of these websites will deliver new information about the Amber alert to your iPhone.

The free iPhone Amber Alert app offers more information.

The free iPhone Amber Alert app offers more information.

There is also a free Amber Alert iPhone app that offers more information about missing children. The app allows users to report a sighting directly from the app. This iPhone Amber Alert app has not been updated in several years but appears to function.

If you did not get an Amber Alert on the iPhone, but a coworker did, you should make sure that Government Alerts are set to on. Grab the iPhone to get started. Go to Settings -> Notifications -> Scroll down to Government Alerts and make sure Amber Alerts is marked on.

If this doesn’t solve the problem it is possible your carrier does not support the built-in iPhone Amber Alerts yet.

How to Turn Off Android & iPhone Amber Alerts

If you don’t want to get notifications for Amber Alerts you can turn them off on your iPhone. If you do this you will not get the notifications at all. You may want to consider using Do Not Disturb to prevent your iPhone from waking you up at night instead of turning them off altogether.

How to turn off iPhone Amber alerts.

How to turn off iPhone Amber alerts.

Go to Settings -> Notifications -> Scroll down and turn off Amber Alerts. This will turn off iPhone Amber alerts for your iPhone.

On Android, the settings will vary, but you can go to Settings and look for Emergency Alerts or Government Alerts to change these settings.

What’s New in iOS 11.4.1

What's New in iOS 11.4.1

What's New in iOS 11.4.1

The iOS 11.4 update added Messages in iCloud and AirPlay 2, but it also brought issues along with it. The iOS 11.4.1 update keeps these long anticipated features and includes fixes for some iOS 11.4 problems. 

Specifically the iOS 11.4.1 update;

  • Fixes an issue that prevented some users from viewing the last known location of their AirPods in Find My iPhone. 
  • Improves reliability of syncing mail, contacts and notes with Exchange accounts.  

This update also includes other bug fixes and security upgrades. It's possible that this update includes a fix for bad iOS 11.4 battery life. 

Messages in the Cloud allows you to backup your iMessage conversations to the cloud just like you back up your notes, contacts and photos. This means they are backed up in case something happens to your phone, but that's not all. 

Messages in the Cloud syncs deleted messages and threads across your iCloud devices. This means everything will show up the same across your Apple devices. With this in place you should see the same conversations everywhere, all of the time. 

This also backs up the photos and attachments in the cloud so you have more room on your iPhone or iPad. When you get a new device all of the messages sync to that device so you don't lose anything. 

14 Comments

14 Comments

  1. Jim Veilleux

    07/19/2013 at 12:14 pm

    You can also sign up for your local community emergency alert system. These may have more detail on the Amber alerts and will also send alerts on other things like chemical spills, fires, street closings, etc. Go to https://www.usnear.org to sign up for any local emergency alert service in the US.

  2. JenD

    08/06/2013 at 6:21 am

    Got one last night about midnight. Scared me because of the loudness of it. Thought it was my home security system going off.

  3. Jon

    08/06/2013 at 9:29 am

    Thanks for this. Hopefully in the future they’ll be able to put more information into the alert or have it take you directly to a web page for more info. I’ll check out the app for sure.

  4. C

    08/06/2013 at 3:45 pm

    After I first saw it, it disappeared. Does it reside somewhere on the phone?

    • Wayne

      12/01/2013 at 1:08 pm

      iPhone 5: swipe down from the top of the screen to open notifications. Choose the. “ALL” or “MISSED” tab. It should be listed.

  5. Ang

    08/19/2013 at 9:35 am

    At&t must not have this option yet?!?! I have the iPhone4 and cant find it in my settings->notifications… there is no option for Government

  6. Tom Hoke

    01/31/2014 at 4:53 am

    It does not make good sense to wakeup 5,000,000 people at 6 a.m. with the loud, obtrusive Amber alert signal which displays a license plate number. Am I supposed to get out of bed and go get in my car and search for a black Toyota? Go to settings and turn it off. While the idea is good, the implimentation needs to be more sensible.

  7. Russell

    10/28/2014 at 3:05 pm

    I suspect the use of technology here might very well be extremely useful but after searching and reading 4 or 5 different pages on AMBER alerts (I just got one, first time) I’m still not entirely certain of either (a) what this cryptic information is supposed to suggest – is this car sought by police? Does it contain a criminal? A missing child? – nor (b) what I am supposed to do about it, even if I happen to see this vehicle – call 911? Call the police? Call my phone carrier?

    I can of course make some pretty reasonable assumptions regarding the answers to these questions, but shouldn’t an effort as important and as widespread as this one have some solid, detailed, easily-discoverable information about it?

  8. Brian Cooper

    12/01/2015 at 1:57 pm

    Yeah this scared me. Child abduction? I don’t want any parts of this WTF? Its not my problem, I just blew my motor in my car, I have my own problems. What are these cops getting paid for DO YOUR JOB COP AND STAY OFF MY CELLPHONE. iF i GOT KIDNAPPED DO YOU THINK ANYONE WOULD CARE??? My car broke down last week in a really dangerous place So I called the police for help, They never showed, So you think I’m going to help you? I just found out I have been driving on a expired lisence. I was at dmv 5 days ago getting my car registerd I actually used my expired lisence for ID. and they redgesterd it anyway. Although I feel bad about a kid getting abducted. “It’s not my problem” Do your job and find the kid.
    I didn’t like that. I am not a friend of the police. Oh by the way I got a new lisence so it’s too late buddy hahaahahahahahaaha

  9. Brian Cooper

    12/01/2015 at 2:12 pm

    If I see some lost kid, I’ll tell someone. thats all I can do.

  10. David Bennett

    05/12/2016 at 9:36 am

    Got my first Amber Alert! Absolutely worthless. Nice idea but poor implementation. Here is how to fix:

    1) Don’t send an alert from the opposite side of the state (but if it must be so, fix 2) below:

    2) Give frickin more information! Fix the technical limitation on the number of alert characters allowed or stop the stupid system altogether because the short cryptic alert has little value to those of us who would want to help, if we could. We can’t help unless more information!

    3) Notwithstanding 2) above, at the very least allow a click on the Amber Alert to open up a webpage with specific information on that alert. Currently, absolutely ZERO, ZIP, NADA, NOTHING.

    4) Since Amber Alerts are by definition emergencies, allow the Amber Alert to temporarily (but only partially) bypass the phone’s password protection so that the idea suggested in 3) above could be automatically implemented.

  11. Matt

    09/12/2016 at 8:42 pm

    Some of you people need to realize all lives matter and just think if it was one of your loved ones. How would you want other people to react to say oh whatever or actually keep an eye out for the amber alert that’s all they’re asking for is a little help

  12. Realoldtimer (@oldtimer201)

    10/01/2016 at 5:23 am

    Turning off alerts on my phone DOES NOT work. I go to settings, notifications, government alerts and turn off amber and emergency alerts, I still get them..

  13. Ed

    01/18/2017 at 4:26 am

    The article is mistaken in stating that “Do Not Disturb” mode will keep the Amber Alert from sounding.

    The Amber Alert will punch through Do Not Disturb, interrupting sleep or meetings or whatever other reason someone may have turned it on, which, in my opinion, should NOT happen.

    If the phone is in Do Not Disturb mode, the user does not wish the phone to be making noises, whether asleep, in a meeting, trying to NOT BE FOUND by someone, or some other reason.

    Amber Alerts should just be held, quietly, until Do Not Disturb is turned OFF, along with any other messages and alerts.

    If one is asleep or in a meeting, or hiding, one is not likely to be in a position to be looking for any cars or license plates, and the message can, and SHOULD, wait until the person IS, possibly, in a position to do so.

    Having Amber Alerts disturb regardless just encourages people to turn Amber Alerts off, and leave it off, as it’s otherwise an awful lot of trouble to remember to turn Amber Alerts OFF at the same time one is turning ON Do Not Disturb, and if the Do Not Disturb is scheduled, one still has to remember to turn the Amber Alerts off, and then back on, after Do Not Disturb automatically shuts off.

    Most people aren’t going to be willing to go to this much trouble, and are more likely to just turn Amber Alert off entirely and forget the whole thing after the third or so time of being awakened from a sound sleep by it.

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