This past Sunday, the alert sent by Civil Protection to the residents and visitors of the Community of Madrid became a trend. Some wondering how they could deactivate them (although it is a bad idea), while others limited themselves to uploading screenshots of the message to their social networks. Well then, if you are one of the few who have not received the notice, even if you were within the affected areathere is a very simple way to activate Civil Protection alerts on your Android or iPhone mobile.
Civil Protection alerts are an important step for the safety of the inhabitants and visitors of Spain. Besides, allows the country to comply with the European directive, which specifies the duty of governments to offer “any personnel with a mobile phone, including visitors from other countries, the possibility of receiving in seconds, in an unequivocal and intelligible manner, the information that the competent authorities decide to send to the potentially affected areas. The latter may be due to a catastrophe or an emergency situation.
Why haven’t I received the Civil Protection alert?
If you are one of those who had active Civil Protection alerts, but still have not received the notice, there are several reasons behind it. First of all, It is necessary to rule out that you were outside the Community of Madrid, the affected area on this occasion. Remember that notifications are only sent to a location that may be affected by a natural disaster (or other emergency). In this case, the only ones to receive it were those who were in the Spanish capital.
Registration does not count in Civil Protection alerts, as some believe in social networks. As previously commented by the General Directorate of Civil Protection, it is a system called ES-Alert, and which is based on Cell Broadcast technology. This allows the Government to issue communications through radio waves that will reach mobile phones within an affected area.
The only requirements to receive Civil Protection notices (in addition to having them activated), is to have a mobile with coverage and out of Airplane Mode. Without these conditions, the notification will not arrive.
Given the importance of Civil Protection alerts, these will reach your mobile, even if you have it in Do Not Disturb or silent mode. In addition, it will not stop its sound until you confirm that you have read the information on the screen.
How to activate Civil Protection alerts on Android and iOS
Android
In Android there are several alerts that can be configured independently. Among them, the AMBER (kidnapped minors), extreme, serious or test threats. For Google mobile operating system, It will be enough to do the following to receive Civil Protection notifications in the future.
- open the app Setting of your Android mobile.
- Scroll to the option security and emergencies (or something similar). In some Android phones, this option could also be found in the section notifications.
- Seeks Wireless emergency alerts.
- Activate the option Civil Protection Pre-Alert. If you can’t find it, simply activate all the notification functions that appear within this menu.
iOS
If you have an iPhone mobile, there is also a section where you can activate or deactivate Civil Protection alerts. In the case of Apple’s mobile operating system, you must have iOS 15.6 or higher. If this is your case, just do the following:
- go to menu settings of your mobile.
- Here, go down to the section notifications.
- Scroll to the bottom of the menu. Then you will see the option Civil Protection Pre-Alerts.
Once activated, you should receive all notifications sent by the Government of Spain in case of emergency.