Way back in June, we told you that iOS 6 would have new, integrated emergency alert and AMBER Alert notifications. When you go looking for them, you may not find them. Even if, as some folks out there like to say, you “scroll all the way to the bottom” of the Notifications pane in the Settings app, if your carrier hasn’t implemented the alerts, yet, you won’t see them in there.
I suppose you can keep trying, but we’re here to keep you from wasting your time.
It’s a great idea, right? The SAFE Port Act was signed into law by George W. Bush on October 13, 2006, and it relies on SMS broadcasts to push notifications to your iPhone (or other smartphone) to warn you about weather threats, Amber Alerts, and other “Presidential” alerts. The system was live in 2011 starting in New York City, and should be available around the US by now.
If, that is, your carrier supports the alerts.
Macworld found that, in the San Francisco Bay Area, at least, only Sprint and Verizon users saw the settings to enable or disable the alerts. They also noted that the availability can vary with location; their informal Twitter poll showed that some Verizon users in some parts of the country see the settings, while others do not.
The forums over at MacRumors seem to confirm this, with many users on different carriers both seeing and not seeing the notification settings.
So, how about you, Cult of Mac readers? Let us know your carrier, and where in general you live, and whether you see the Government Alerts section in your Notification settings. We hope that all the carriers and locations can build this out and implement the abilities already in iOS to help users know when an emergency is pending, and what to do to get to safety.
