How to Turn Off Emergency Alerts Without Missing Important Warnings 🤫

The government is sending another emergency alert test on Sunday, September 7th, at 3pm.
While these alerts are meant to warn you about life-threatening events, many people were annoyed about the last one in 2023. If you want to disable these alerts, I’m here to show you how, without completely turning off your phone’s safety features.

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Disabling alerts on your iPhone is easy. Open Settings, tap Notifications, then scroll to the bottom and turn off ‘Severe Alerts’ and ‘Emergency Alerts’.
For Android, the precise steps depend on the phone, but you can usually find an option called ‘Emergency alerts’ or ‘Safety and emergency’ in Settings, then turn off the sliders.

❓ What If You Can’t Find the Setting?

If you can’t find the emergency alerts option in your phone’s settings, there’s a little-known trick you can try on some Android phones. Open your phone-calling app and type *#*#2627#*#*.
On some phones, this will prevent emergency alerts from getting through, and you’ll see a message that says ‘Mobile broadcast testing mode is disabled’.
This allows you to rest easy knowing your vibrating phone won’t disturb you. It won’t affect other important alerts, so you won’t miss out on important warnings.

Remember, the alert is sent from phone masts, so your phone needs to be on a mobile network, not just Wi-Fi.
It also needs to be running a version of Android later than 11 or iOS later than 14.5.
So, if you’ve done everything right and you still receive the alert, you can at least be confident that your phone’s settings are working as they should be.

📡 What About My Router?

It’s not just phones that can be a source of frustration.
A recent article mentioned that Freesat customers can no longer control their TV boxes remotely through their phone app.
This feature was removed in an update, leading to a furious backlash from users.
The average review on the Google Play Store is now just 1.3 stars.
This comes a year after Freesat also removed the option to record programmes remotely.

• Will your phone get the Govt’s emergency alert? Computeractive – Issue 715, 30 July-12 August 2025. p. 10.
• Freesat axes remote control for boxes. Computeractive – Issue 715, 30 July-12 August 2025. p. 9.

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