Getting Every Emergency Alert Your Phone Can Give You (and Silencing the Rest)
Last verified: August 2026
That loud screech your phone makes for a tornado warning is a Wireless Emergency Alert — and you want the important ones on. Here's how to make sure they're enabled, and how to quiet the ones you don't need.
About emergency alerts on your phone
Wireless Emergency Alerts are the loud, buzzing messages your phone gets for things like tornado warnings, flash floods, and AMBER Alerts for missing children. They're free, they come from the government and the National Weather Service, and they're targeted to your area using the cell towers around you — so you get the ones for where you actually are. There's nothing to sign up for; they're built into modern phones.
You can choose which types you receive, with one exception: the National (formerly Presidential) alert, used only for a true nationwide emergency, can't be turned off. Everything else — severe weather, AMBER Alerts, public-safety messages, and the occasional test — you can toggle on or off. The sensible setup for most people is to keep the life-safety alerts on and turn off only the test messages if they bother you.
It's worth a two-minute check, because these can be switched off by accident, and a silenced tornado alert helps no one. The steps below show you where to look on both an iPhone and an Android phone.
When to skip the DIY and just call: Checking that life-safety alerts are turned on · Quieting only the alerts you don't want · Making sure a family member's phone is set up too.
Common Questions
1 How do I turn them on (or check them) on an iPhone?
- Open Settings, then tap Notifications.
- Scroll all the way to the bottom to “Government Alerts” or “Emergency Alerts.”
- Turn on Emergency Alerts and, if shown, Public Safety Alerts.
- Note the National alert can't be turned off — that's normal.
- Turn on “Always Play Sound” if you want the alarm even when your phone is silent.
2 How do I turn them on (or check them) on Android?
- Open Settings and search for “Emergency alerts” or “Wireless emergency alerts.”
- It's usually under Safety & emergency, or Notifications.
- Turn on Extreme threats, Severe threats, and AMBER Alerts.
- Leave the National/Presidential alert on — it can't be disabled anyway.
- Turn off only “Test alerts” if the occasional test bothers you.
3 Which should I keep on, and which can I quiet?
- Keep on: tornado and flash-flood (extreme/severe threats) and AMBER Alerts.
- Keep on: public-safety alerts, which cover local emergencies.
- Optional to turn off: test messages, which are just checks of the system.
- You cannot turn off the National alert, reserved for a nationwide emergency.
- When in doubt, leave the life-safety ones on — they're rare and they matter.
4 My phone never seems to get them — why?
- Check they're switched on in Settings using the steps above; they can get toggled off.
- Make sure your phone software is up to date.
- Alerts need cell service — they won't arrive if you're in a dead zone or on airplane mode.
- Turn on “Always Play Sound” (iPhone) so a silenced phone still sounds the alarm.
- Want me to check your phone and a family member's so everyone's covered? That's an easy $99 visit.
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