If you want to be informed via your smartphone in the event of disasters and crises, you should definitely activate an important setting. TECHBOOK shows which one it is.
In the event of floods, natural disasters or other emergencies, the population in Germany is informed via radio and TV, on public notice boards, but also via smartphones. In addition to apps, there is now a new, additional warning channel for them. You can try it out on December 8th. On this official warning day, there will be a test warning for crises, disasters and emergencies nationwide at 11:00 a.m. on all possible channels. And for the first time, a warning system is being used that runs over the mobile phone network: cell broadcast. You receive a text message on your smartphone as an emergency warning, accompanied by an alarm tone. However, smartphone owners should first ensure that Cell Broadcast is activated on their device.
Enable emergency alert on smartphone
iPhone owners have it relatively easy. Alerts are automatically active on Apple phones if at least iOS 15.6.1 is installed, explained the IT industry association Bitkom. However, depending on the level of the alert, you can turn off receiving the alerts in the settings under “Notifications” and “Official Alerts”. Users should check whether the “Test warnings” item is activated here. Because if this switch is not active, nothing happens on the warning day.
The situation is similar for users of Android smartphones. According to Bitkom, the devices are fit for cell broadcast from operating system version 11. Here, too, the warnings are active by default, but test warnings usually have to be activated on the smartphone first.
Turning alerts on and off is possible with many manufacturers like Samsung via the notification settings. One exact instructions Samsung has published on its info page. With other Android smartphones, users usually get what they want when they type in “Emergency notifications” or “Emergency warning” in the search field.
You have to ask the manufacturer whether warnings via cell broadcast can be activated manually for older Android versions. This is possible with Samsung, for example. If this is not possible, smartphone owners can also use the warning apps Nina or Katwarn for emergency warnings.
Also read: Which apps warn me of flooding and heavy rain?
Important warnings are always active
Incidentally, there is one exception to the option of deactivating cell broadcast warnings: messages with the highest warning level (warning level 1) cannot be switched off, explained the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK). They therefore do not even appear in the selection for iOS or Android.
According to the BBK, cell broadcast is data protection compliant: no personal data is collected or processed for the transmission of the messages. The warning message is “sent to all mobile devices that are ready to receive it, without the sender of the warning message knowing or being able to record the mobile phone number or other data of the recipient,” according to the Federal Office.
With material from dpa