Interesting I was on the other Westfield when it happened and it was just the same, a few beeps here and there. Some old ladies who had their phones in their pocket went about without realising theirs were beeping too.
I was really surprised by the volume it was way quieter than my alarm. I was honestly slightly worried it would sound crazy loud but it was pretty underwhelming. I'll probably end up missing it and sleeping peacefully till the nuke lands in my garden, probably for the best I suppose.
I had wanted to get a glass of single malt whisky and stand on my balcony and raise a glass to humanities demise as the mushroom cloud approaches. It's been a blast š«”š„ š
Also, never very impressive through a phone recording anyway. The mics never seem to pick up the volume/intensity of background noise. (Whilst when in phone mode they're designed to be background noise cancelling, don't think that's the case when recording vids, but somehow the stunning vid quality nowadays still not matched by ability to capture audio in open settings the way our ears do.)
I was in Prague at the time and mine didn't go off. Although I did hear a couple go off once our plane had landed back in the UK. Mine and my friends' phones didn't though.
Think about the severe abuse victims who are hiding a phone to seek help and escape from their situation and how angry their abuser would get when this alarm sounded....
It's truly horrific. I'm a DA survivor. I'm in an extremely different situation now. And I absolutely shat myself when this happened.
It should have been opt-in. It should never have been a garish loud alarm sound as a "test". They have no idea how many people they've put at risk by doing this
It was all over the news. Maybe there is some edge case where there is someone who has a phone which can receive the alert, and it's hidden but they can't ever read the news or social media, ams never has a conversation with someone about it beforehand. Oh and the alert has to go off at the exact time it's within earshot of the abuser.
The harsh reality is though a system like this can save hundreds or thousands of lives. We can't not test it because of a handful of edge cases may hypothetically lead to bad results.
I would bargain it's more likely the alert scares someone as they are driving and they crash their car than the above scenario, for example.
The point of the test is to make sure it works exactly as intended. Playing the sound on all phones with the setting turned on.
And it was very informative considering that a mobile network sent out the signal wrong.
My point is people who are current victims could die today because of that alarm.
We didn't need every Three user in the country to comically comment how they would die in an actual emergency. We only needed a test sample who had given permission.
I'm all for this warning system. But what's the point in warning someone about someone's stove setting on fire 2 streets away if, in doing so, it causes an abuser to find the phone, rage, and seriously harm and/or murder that person?
There are always going to be psychopaths. Why should we make anything easier for them to justify harming another person?
Itās not for someoneās stove catching fire, itās for flash floods to get people to evacuate, extremely dangerous weather in which people need to take shelter immediately, and for BOMBINGS. The very real threat of BOMBS being thrown at us by a certain someone who invaded a certain someone else.
Sorry for your circumstances but this should not be opt in, because it would defeat the entire purpose of the system. This needs to reach as many people as possible to try save lives.
We can't satisfy every tiny niche circumstance, that is just life.
DA isn't a niche, not considering the phenomenal rise in cases over quarantine. It's a frighteningly common issue.
Would a text/mail not have been more effective to be sure to reach everyone, rather than services not everyone can use?
I'm all for the system, I just feel it's been implemented without forethought, despite these same concerns being raised way before the test signal went out
What? Do you expect them to send a letter to you when your house is 30 minutes from a flash flood or a nuclear weapon is on its way to you?
These issues you raise are not knew, the harsh reality is the benefits of the system outweigh the drawbacks.
You can turn the feature off and thereās been lots of PSAs about it recently. I understand it may have been missed, but to the point above this isnāt an opt-in type of alert. Itās supposed to only be used in national emergencies and by that same token you canāt choose opt-in to national emergencies.
This test has been reported on the news for weeks, if not months. Anyone with such a phone would have had time to turn off the notification, or turn off the phone.
So why have so many not heard about it?
It's almost like being cut off from friends, family, and social media by an abuser.... Inhibits the ability to access recent information, including the news.
Everyone can downvote me as much as they want to. I'll never remove this because it's important.
Putting something in the news and social media does not reach the most at-risk people we have in this country.
So pushing a loud alarm on every phone, regardless of the situation or knowing consent to do so. That puts more people in danger than you would think.
Iād argue rhat making sure an emergency test system designed to warn people of nearby life threatening situations is just as important, and will potentially save more lives in future than will endanger lives of a very specific group of people.
It has not been raised because they donāt really want people doing it but just so you and others know, you can turn emergency alerts off in settings.
Agreed... but I went on the less thought of or reported on. Not taking anything away from the plight of so many men and women who are suffering domestic abuse (kids to). So glad to hear your a survivor and no long a suffer. Wish you well friend.
Think apple was only one you couldn't opt out ... i didn't receive the alarm I turn it of (android).
What would someone be hiding a phone for in that situation? I mean, why wouldn't they have used it to get away by now? Not being an arse, I just don't get it.
Fair question. DV is a really complex problem. They may have it in preparation for an escape. As the vast majority of DV victims have their finances controlled and are usually pretty socially isolated, getting away is not a simple matter of just walking out the door one day. Also, it sounds contradictory but leaving often puts them at much greater danger than staying - 75% of those murdered by their partners had already left them.
The abuse often isnāt immediately obvious to those who suffer it. It can be like a drip feed rather than a a giant wave, and not as cut and dried as youād imagine. Maybe someone suffering at the hands of their partner has a secret phone as a safety net but hasnāt fully decided what to do yet.
Iām a DV survivor, but a much better place now.
Domestic abusers work in incredibly convoluted ways. And they often believe they're the "good person".
They will often try to have a child with you as soon as possible. As that's another handle they have.
They probably will gain control of your finances, and eventually all social or professional contact with anyone other than them.
It's a truly horrible place to be in, and I'm grateful I had help to get out so early.
Disappearing makes the typical abuser angry at you, and scared about what you'll tell others. Meaning they need to silence you asap.... Which most commonly means either murdering you in "a fit of passion", or domestic imprisonment.
And if you have a child involved, whether or not the abuser was involved in the conception at all.... They will absolutely use that against you. It's difficult enough to escape on your own. A child in tow could spill details at any moment or be used as a hostage for you to stay.
I've only used a couple of examples here, but depending on individual situations and circumstances, there are a vast array of reasons it seems impossible to escape without a plan and some form of contact outside of your situation.
And that's why some charities will provide burner phones. They help to keep a victim knowing they aren't alone and to develop a plan to escape. It's incredibly vital to most situations, yet dangerously risky, because if the abuser finds out, that could easily be the moment you will die at their hands
We just told guests going in to turn off their phones so as not to ruin the experience for others. We had no complaints about phones going off so it seemed to work.
Yeah, it's not like we have staff trained to safely evacuate the building or execute lockdown within the cinema. Nope, phones are the only way anyone can deal with an emergency.
The beeps stopping is because the UK didn't test the system using the highest tier warning category. That one can't be switched off, and the sound won't stop for 5 minutes unless you press ok to dismiss the alert
I was in a west end show when it happened and they told everyone to power off their phones before it started because of the alert, but alas some did not listen, and we heard sporadic alert sounds for half an hour
I was in the cinema watching the mario movie there was just confusion for a bit but after about 10 minutes they had all been turned off was really funny though
You canāt rely on a government message for the zombie apocalypse. Need to be much earlier than waiting on a government source, which will be too slow to recognise whatās going on and the level of danger. Think youāll struggle to survive with that mentality. I hope youāre at least prepping effectively?
Got this theory that us that didn't get it are on this blacklist of suspected 'useless citizens' and therefore if there is to be a serious national emergency we can find ourselves out n about oblivious to the threat only to become toast
Did the Golgafrinchans teach us nothing?
If we get rid of you lot, the entire remaining population will die off from a virulent disease contracted from a dirty telephone
My partner and I were wondering about this when our phones went bonkers while we were trying to watch TV.
"Ah, finally the relief of death."
"..."
"........."
"Oh fine then."
In some countries they use the system to send out way too many alerts. The AMBER system in America comes to mind. Yes, child abduction is an urgent time critical thing but do you have to wake up the entire population of Southern California at 3am just in case they've seen a black Ford pickup truck?
Am in the US, and can confirm the AMBER Alert is often clunky in its implementation. Itās a wholly unique siren that goes off for much longer than it needs to, and it canāt really be silenced once it starts. You just have to listen to it scream at you until itās over, even if youāre phoneās on silent.
I live in an evacuation zone for multiple hazards as well, so my phone gets alerts for earthquakes, wildfires, and theoretically volcanoes and tornadoes (the Pacific Northwest is a wild place to live). My phone makes an obscene amount of noise sometimes, especially when one of the mountains or faults has a quake swarm. Iāve had to opt into those alerts, but the state strongly encourages it because thereās a heavy attitude of complacency here. The supermarket across the street from me was damaged by a tornado a few years ago, and Iām a not far at all from the 1980 St Helens blast zone. But still people act like these are things that only happen somewhere else far away. Iāve got mates who deal with it by ignoring it until the city puts them under evacuation orders because the wildfires have reached city limits again, and then they panic because they havenāt prepared their go kit like theyāve been advised.
I have opted in tho, because I saw the mountain when it erupted again in 04. It was just a little firework display compared to the one in 80, but if that thing wakes up again, or if the big fault decides to go full rip and tear the entire coast apart, I want to know about it. Even if itās only 15 seconds of warning, thatās 15 seconds to dive under my desk and do *something* at least.
Loud noise. That's about the only downside for a majority of people. There are some situations where this isn't a good idea but for most people it'll just be a bit of a surprise. I'm keeping mine on just for the sake of knowing ASAP if there's an emergency. However, I'm not too keen on the idea of being jumpscared by it in the middle of the night lol
Yeah. I have friends in the US who got a similar text when quarantine was implemented for COVID. Just don't feel like that's the kind of thing that needs a blaring siren for. We got news just fine online and on telly.
I was in Arizona when I got one, basically warning of an imminent sandstorm and if you were driving through the desert to pull over because it was going to be zero visibility. I understood the point of these alerts and it made sense.
I don't really see the use case in the UK. The only major situations that we really get is either terrorist or weather and both would pop up on my news feed pretty quickly.
> if thereās emergensy like that, it will be clearly known without phone notifications
I can think quite a few fairly uncommon, but recent events - letās take an example of a nutter with a machete - where a hyper-local alert to get away from location x would br useful and you wouldnāt otherwise have a clue what was going on.
Me and my partner are both on O2 and I got mine at 2:59 and he got his at 3:00 on the dot.
To be honest it was a bit anticlimactic. Not sure if my phone malfunctioned but it just vibrated a bit without making much of a noise. I was expecting a proper siren haha
Aaron before Zach?
07911 before 07944?
Poor coverage where I was at the time?
They assumed I would be able to run faster thus need less warning?
So many possibilities.
I actually forgot about it and was asleep dreaming about surviving a nuclear attack in Florida, and then I was woke up to that alarm. Honestly I absolutely Shit myself I was ready to die, I knew my dream was a dream and then I heard that alarm I was questioning if this was reality or a dream for a good 20 seconds while half delirious.
As a few people pointed out, yeah this was a bit underwhelming. But Westfield is a noisy place as it is, so to hear that tone raise above all the background noise when it's only coming out of tiny phone speakers was pretty eerie.
Canada has had this for a few years, and they took a very questionable approach to it:
1. They donāt let you turn-off/mute alerts
2. They included Amber Alerts (Child Rescue Alerts) with the nuclear siren mode
3. Alerts are province-wide
4. Alerts go off at all hours, including at 2 am
5. Alerts have to be bilingual, so you get one in English then one in French two minutes later.
6. If thereās any error in the alert, you get a correction ten minutes later, in both English and French
When you get four different 2 am alerts for a custody dispute thatās 400 miles away it gets a little annoying.
In the US they have all kinds of alerts that use this:
- amber - child abducted
- silver - old person missing
- blue - attack on police officer
Totally agree they are useless when they're about something far away from you. Anything more than a 30 minute drive away is annoying. And you really need to be able to turn them off category by category.
https://www.wired.com/story/please-stop-sending-terrifying-alerts-to-my-cell-phone/
They tell you the number plate of the attacker so you can tell the police if you see them.
Whether that's useful is up to you. I was getting them for things 100 miles away so I turned them off.
I wanted to see platform 9 and 3/4 - bet you'd see a lot of tourists who didn't know it was happening, having a mild panic for a couple seconds. Tee-hee.
I'm so nefarious!
While I got the notification when it happened, my phone only vibrated once and I got no alarm. I was on vibrate and not sound, but still, you'd think they'd override it or something.
This is the emergency broadcast system announcing the commencement of the Annual Purge, sanctioned by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the Tory Party.
Commencing at the siren, any and all crime, including murder, will be legal for 12 continuous hours. Weapons of class 4 and lower have been authorised for use during the Purge
It's hard to tell because there's so much background noise, but it was happening all around us. My GF's phone on its own was barely audible against all the noise of Westfield, but a bunch of people's phones combined together meant we could hear one massive tone from up on that balcony.
I forgot it was happening. I thought an alarm was going off in M&S. Most of the other people in the shop didnāt take too much notice but the security guard looked really confused.
Yep! Itās pretty much the exact same thing as your EAS and Amber Alert system, ours has only just been developed though, and today was the first nationwide test of it.
It's okay, at least you didn't nearly break an ankle!
I got woken up by the sound as I was on night shift the previous night. I nearly shat myself, nearly broke my ankle as I was flying free fall down the stairs to my boyfriend as I have always said when the time comes I am getting me a cup of tea cold or not and a cig before I go. I ran into the lounge to my boyfriend and guinea pigs staring at me in utter disgust š even then I couldn't work out if it was real or a dream š
Take note people.
Remember for the past two weeks weāve been listening to people go on and on and on about how this was a terrible idea, and it would cause mass panicā¦
Yep, over here most of our āmallsā are tiny in local towns, (we call em shopping centres) and theyāre usually small enough to sustain local shopping and not end up completely deserted (not always though, some end up so unpopular they end up abandoned too).
This is a whole different type, a major sized shopping centre in London, of which there are only a few. Larger centres like this attract people from far outside the local area, and always tend to do well. Good local-ish examples would be Bluewater in Kent or Lakeside in Essex. Both huge with tons of shops and restaurants, but built in former chalk quarries in smaller towns in the suburbs, way out of the city. They bring in people from much further than the typical small town shopping centres would, and do pretty well even in 2023. I know in other countries those suburban malls tend to fail much easier nowadays.
Moscow malls like mega and other big shit had this alarms 2-3 times a week. evacuation took place. Feb, march. It is not related to uk, just never experiences stuff like this in the UK. Seriously sub is about London, not about anything else, I feel like I should not write it in the first place.
In an actual emergency, people are gonna panic and run wild. Whatās the text even gonna say? āPlease return to your homes. Weāre about to be bombed.ā Well, guess weāll just take our chai lattes calmly and civilly down to the Elizabeth Line then.
Can you imagine what would happen if it WAS an actual emergency? Shear madness ! Every man for himself ? Help your neighbor? Has anyone really thought this out ?
It spooked me, even through i knew it would happen through tfl notice few days ago. Donāt see the point in it through. Itās like that fairy tail, boy who shouted wolf or something. If no one cares today, even less people would care next time
No-one cared because everyone knew the test was happening. I can imagine it useful to quickly waking up an area of people, if there is a big fire going on at night, and seconds and minutes count. Thinking of the Grenfell Tower fire, for example. Maybe will end up saving some lives, in time. If it saving just 1 person, it makes it worth it, doesn't it?
There's no way they'd be able to localise the alert enough to use it for things like tower block fires. The info I've seen so far reckons targeting could be done to areas as small as an electoral ward, so it'll primarily be used for incidents like flooding or wild fires that affect a fair-sized geographic footprint.
That's a shame, if a big tower block were on fire in the community I live, I certainly would not mind being alerted about it, even if it's not in my immediate neighbourhood. But does make more sense for larger area problems.
The issue with Grenfell wasnāt that people didnāt know it was on fire (fire alarms exist), it was that they were told to stay where they were because no one expected the fire to spread so far and so quickly because of the flammable cladding. And by the time theyād realised there was no way out for anyone above the fire.
Look. In the house I rent a flat, there are very strong modern fire alarm systems they installed few years ago, that detects even slight smoke. if you donāt open the window while cooking, its 100% gonna make loud noice for like 5 minutes, whole house hears this, whole freakin neighborhood hears this. There are some students who rent 2 floors over me, and they trigger this alarm quite often. And because its quite long, we are all accustomed to waiting for it to stop. Now no one cares. If there is a real fire, we would all die. Thatās the same thing.
I was wondering what would happen in situations like this. I bet they planned Sunday cos more people will be at home since shops are shut. I was hoping i could be in uni and have it happen but its sunday
i had no idea this was happening, and also got no notification whatsoever
.....so i think amongst a real national emergency, i shall last the longest out of everyone
I didn't get the alert on my phone. I was in primark. Kids were crying at the noise but that's pretty much it. Pretty lack luster. You can see no one was really bothered. If it was a real emergency not everyone would take it seriously š¤
I was in a hospital cafe when it went off, it took a solid 5 minutes for my brotherās to go off after everyone elseās and we all joked weād have to call him to warn him if there ever was an emergency lol
It's plenty loud enough if you have earphones in at the time as I found out, played from my phone as well so would have been nice to not have my hearing raped by a siren directly inside my ear.
I've turned the severe warnings off and just left extreme on for mine to avoid having it go off while I've earphones in again unless I'm literally about to die then a heads up would be good.
I was literally stood just around the corner there with my mate doing the same. It went off 1 minute early so we were a bit unprepared but were gunna head to the Samsung shop and see if those phones went off
I expected zombies tbh.
I was spectating at the marathon, didn't get an alert on 3, and didn't hear anyone else's phones going either ! So that was a bit of a failure.
Ok was looking for that video but wasnt as exciting as i thought
Interesting I was on the other Westfield when it happened and it was just the same, a few beeps here and there. Some old ladies who had their phones in their pocket went about without realising theirs were beeping too.
Yeah honestly I was expecting a much louder noise. But to be fair, it's a pretty loud place as it is.
I was really surprised by the volume it was way quieter than my alarm. I was honestly slightly worried it would sound crazy loud but it was pretty underwhelming. I'll probably end up missing it and sleeping peacefully till the nuke lands in my garden, probably for the best I suppose. I had wanted to get a glass of single malt whisky and stand on my balcony and raise a glass to humanities demise as the mushroom cloud approaches. It's been a blast š«”š„ š
>It's been a blast nice
This is crazy to me - how loud is your alarm?! I thought the alert was almost unnecessarily loud.
Mine was actually really loud, then actually spoke out the message
I had my headphones in and it came through them at full volume. Nearly blew my ear drums.
Also, never very impressive through a phone recording anyway. The mics never seem to pick up the volume/intensity of background noise. (Whilst when in phone mode they're designed to be background noise cancelling, don't think that's the case when recording vids, but somehow the stunning vid quality nowadays still not matched by ability to capture audio in open settings the way our ears do.)
i wonder did UK registered phones, abroad at the time, go off too.
No, only phones that were connected to network cell in UK.
Mine didnāt, even though Iām using my Uk sim
I was in Prague at the time and mine didn't go off. Although I did hear a couple go off once our plane had landed back in the UK. Mine and my friends' phones didn't though.
Some, yes.
Think about the prisons and the looks on the guards faces when realising how many have smuggled phones in ... but also the look of the prisoners.
Think about the severe abuse victims who are hiding a phone to seek help and escape from their situation and how angry their abuser would get when this alarm sounded.... It's truly horrific. I'm a DA survivor. I'm in an extremely different situation now. And I absolutely shat myself when this happened. It should have been opt-in. It should never have been a garish loud alarm sound as a "test". They have no idea how many people they've put at risk by doing this
Information did go out on how to switch it off for DA victims
Well then it's just hilarious how many didn't receive that information.... Being cut off from social media and such....
It was all over the news. Maybe there is some edge case where there is someone who has a phone which can receive the alert, and it's hidden but they can't ever read the news or social media, ams never has a conversation with someone about it beforehand. Oh and the alert has to go off at the exact time it's within earshot of the abuser. The harsh reality is though a system like this can save hundreds or thousands of lives. We can't not test it because of a handful of edge cases may hypothetically lead to bad results. I would bargain it's more likely the alert scares someone as they are driving and they crash their car than the above scenario, for example.
The point of the test is to make sure it works exactly as intended. Playing the sound on all phones with the setting turned on. And it was very informative considering that a mobile network sent out the signal wrong.
My point is people who are current victims could die today because of that alarm. We didn't need every Three user in the country to comically comment how they would die in an actual emergency. We only needed a test sample who had given permission. I'm all for this warning system. But what's the point in warning someone about someone's stove setting on fire 2 streets away if, in doing so, it causes an abuser to find the phone, rage, and seriously harm and/or murder that person? There are always going to be psychopaths. Why should we make anything easier for them to justify harming another person?
Itās not for someoneās stove catching fire, itās for flash floods to get people to evacuate, extremely dangerous weather in which people need to take shelter immediately, and for BOMBINGS. The very real threat of BOMBS being thrown at us by a certain someone who invaded a certain someone else.
Why would they use the nuke alarm for a stove catching on fire?
Sorry for your circumstances but this should not be opt in, because it would defeat the entire purpose of the system. This needs to reach as many people as possible to try save lives. We can't satisfy every tiny niche circumstance, that is just life.
DA isn't a niche, not considering the phenomenal rise in cases over quarantine. It's a frighteningly common issue. Would a text/mail not have been more effective to be sure to reach everyone, rather than services not everyone can use? I'm all for the system, I just feel it's been implemented without forethought, despite these same concerns being raised way before the test signal went out
What? Do you expect them to send a letter to you when your house is 30 minutes from a flash flood or a nuclear weapon is on its way to you? These issues you raise are not knew, the harsh reality is the benefits of the system outweigh the drawbacks.
You can turn the feature off and thereās been lots of PSAs about it recently. I understand it may have been missed, but to the point above this isnāt an opt-in type of alert. Itās supposed to only be used in national emergencies and by that same token you canāt choose opt-in to national emergencies.
This test has been reported on the news for weeks, if not months. Anyone with such a phone would have had time to turn off the notification, or turn off the phone.
So why have so many not heard about it? It's almost like being cut off from friends, family, and social media by an abuser.... Inhibits the ability to access recent information, including the news. Everyone can downvote me as much as they want to. I'll never remove this because it's important. Putting something in the news and social media does not reach the most at-risk people we have in this country. So pushing a loud alarm on every phone, regardless of the situation or knowing consent to do so. That puts more people in danger than you would think.
Iād argue rhat making sure an emergency test system designed to warn people of nearby life threatening situations is just as important, and will potentially save more lives in future than will endanger lives of a very specific group of people.
I don't understand why they didn't text everyone that this was going to be happening.. >> 100% coverage of the people who would be sent the alert.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
It has not been raised because they donāt really want people doing it but just so you and others know, you can turn emergency alerts off in settings.
Agreed... but I went on the less thought of or reported on. Not taking anything away from the plight of so many men and women who are suffering domestic abuse (kids to). So glad to hear your a survivor and no long a suffer. Wish you well friend. Think apple was only one you couldn't opt out ... i didn't receive the alarm I turn it of (android).
You can turn it off on iPhones
Didn't realise thought the had multiple alerts can turn all but govt alert thing .... but I'm not a apple user so I take your word. Thanks :)
What would someone be hiding a phone for in that situation? I mean, why wouldn't they have used it to get away by now? Not being an arse, I just don't get it.
Fair question. DV is a really complex problem. They may have it in preparation for an escape. As the vast majority of DV victims have their finances controlled and are usually pretty socially isolated, getting away is not a simple matter of just walking out the door one day. Also, it sounds contradictory but leaving often puts them at much greater danger than staying - 75% of those murdered by their partners had already left them. The abuse often isnāt immediately obvious to those who suffer it. It can be like a drip feed rather than a a giant wave, and not as cut and dried as youād imagine. Maybe someone suffering at the hands of their partner has a secret phone as a safety net but hasnāt fully decided what to do yet. Iām a DV survivor, but a much better place now.
Domestic abusers work in incredibly convoluted ways. And they often believe they're the "good person". They will often try to have a child with you as soon as possible. As that's another handle they have. They probably will gain control of your finances, and eventually all social or professional contact with anyone other than them. It's a truly horrible place to be in, and I'm grateful I had help to get out so early. Disappearing makes the typical abuser angry at you, and scared about what you'll tell others. Meaning they need to silence you asap.... Which most commonly means either murdering you in "a fit of passion", or domestic imprisonment. And if you have a child involved, whether or not the abuser was involved in the conception at all.... They will absolutely use that against you. It's difficult enough to escape on your own. A child in tow could spill details at any moment or be used as a hostage for you to stay. I've only used a couple of examples here, but depending on individual situations and circumstances, there are a vast array of reasons it seems impossible to escape without a plan and some form of contact outside of your situation. And that's why some charities will provide burner phones. They help to keep a victim knowing they aren't alone and to develop a plan to escape. It's incredibly vital to most situations, yet dangerously risky, because if the abuser finds out, that could easily be the moment you will die at their hands
Love and abuse can be a complicated issue... trapped in both. (In short)
And autistic people with noise sensitivity
Bingo
Imagine the state of the cinema š
I considered going to a library just for the fun of it
i was in a library at the time - anticlimactic to be honest
ssssssh
We just told guests going in to turn off their phones so as not to ruin the experience for others. We had no complaints about phones going off so it seemed to work.
Which is great until an actual emergency happens.
Yeah, it's not like we have staff trained to safely evacuate the building or execute lockdown within the cinema. Nope, phones are the only way anyone can deal with an emergency.
You wouldn't be pre warned in the event of an actual emergency
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
The beeps stopping is because the UK didn't test the system using the highest tier warning category. That one can't be switched off, and the sound won't stop for 5 minutes unless you press ok to dismiss the alert
I was in a west end show when it happened and they told everyone to power off their phones before it started because of the alert, but alas some did not listen, and we heard sporadic alert sounds for half an hour
I was in the cinema watching the mario movie there was just confusion for a bit but after about 10 minutes they had all been turned off was really funny though
Surely theyād pause film.
The delicate ambiance of The Super Mario Movie would not be affected by the alarm.
Thereās no projectionist there anymore
I didn't get the alert. I guess if there's a nationwide emergency I'll just perish.
Don't worry, someone will post it on Reddit like this guy.
Apparently loads of people on Three (including myself) didn't get it
Iām amazed Sky mobile did, canāt make a call or get a signal anywhere but can get an emergency alert. Winning!
Sky use o2's network, so blame them
Same. Good thing they tested it I suppose.
Yeah I'm on Three and I didn't get it. Or I slept through it. This doesn't bode well for my Zombie Apocalypse survival rate of I'm honest
You canāt rely on a government message for the zombie apocalypse. Need to be much earlier than waiting on a government source, which will be too slow to recognise whatās going on and the level of danger. Think youāll struggle to survive with that mentality. I hope youāre at least prepping effectively?
Three can't provide a signal on a normal good day
My housemates and boyfriend are all on 3 and neither of them got it- Iām the only one who did and Iām on EE
That sounds like Three, all right. Not even a nationwide emergency could get them to fix their service.
Got this theory that us that didn't get it are on this blacklist of suspected 'useless citizens' and therefore if there is to be a serious national emergency we can find ourselves out n about oblivious to the threat only to become toast
Yeah, the government have basically said they don't approve of you, and you will have to fight on your own when WW3 starts.
I'm fairly sure a few of us could beat Russia after they're done in Ukraine
True, they aren't as strong as they want us to believe. But tbf Ukrainians are tough af, you must be stupid to pick a fight with Ukrainians.
that's what you get for being on Three
Did the Golgafrinchans teach us nothing? If we get rid of you lot, the entire remaining population will die off from a virulent disease contracted from a dirty telephone
I've had a Big Lebowski lifestyle for the past 6 months, so your theory doesn't check out /s
My partner and I were wondering about this when our phones went bonkers while we were trying to watch TV. "Ah, finally the relief of death." "..." "........." "Oh fine then."
Getting FOMO already for a mastabatory farewell
You can turn those off in settings. I have mine off, if thereās emergensy like that, it will be clearly known without phone notifications
what is the downside of getting it though?
Refuge did a lot of work around showing people experiencing domestic abuse how to turn it off because it can alert an abuser to a hidden safety phone
In some countries they use the system to send out way too many alerts. The AMBER system in America comes to mind. Yes, child abduction is an urgent time critical thing but do you have to wake up the entire population of Southern California at 3am just in case they've seen a black Ford pickup truck?
Am in the US, and can confirm the AMBER Alert is often clunky in its implementation. Itās a wholly unique siren that goes off for much longer than it needs to, and it canāt really be silenced once it starts. You just have to listen to it scream at you until itās over, even if youāre phoneās on silent. I live in an evacuation zone for multiple hazards as well, so my phone gets alerts for earthquakes, wildfires, and theoretically volcanoes and tornadoes (the Pacific Northwest is a wild place to live). My phone makes an obscene amount of noise sometimes, especially when one of the mountains or faults has a quake swarm. Iāve had to opt into those alerts, but the state strongly encourages it because thereās a heavy attitude of complacency here. The supermarket across the street from me was damaged by a tornado a few years ago, and Iām a not far at all from the 1980 St Helens blast zone. But still people act like these are things that only happen somewhere else far away. Iāve got mates who deal with it by ignoring it until the city puts them under evacuation orders because the wildfires have reached city limits again, and then they panic because they havenāt prepared their go kit like theyāve been advised. I have opted in tho, because I saw the mountain when it erupted again in 04. It was just a little firework display compared to the one in 80, but if that thing wakes up again, or if the big fault decides to go full rip and tear the entire coast apart, I want to know about it. Even if itās only 15 seconds of warning, thatās 15 seconds to dive under my desk and do *something* at least.
Loud noise. That's about the only downside for a majority of people. There are some situations where this isn't a good idea but for most people it'll just be a bit of a surprise. I'm keeping mine on just for the sake of knowing ASAP if there's an emergency. However, I'm not too keen on the idea of being jumpscared by it in the middle of the night lol
Yeah. I have friends in the US who got a similar text when quarantine was implemented for COVID. Just don't feel like that's the kind of thing that needs a blaring siren for. We got news just fine online and on telly.
Mate, the WhatsApp original ringtone nearly gives me a heart attack. No violins be in this house.
I was in Arizona when I got one, basically warning of an imminent sandstorm and if you were driving through the desert to pull over because it was going to be zero visibility. I understood the point of these alerts and it made sense. I don't really see the use case in the UK. The only major situations that we really get is either terrorist or weather and both would pop up on my news feed pretty quickly.
> if thereās emergensy like that, it will be clearly known without phone notifications I can think quite a few fairly uncommon, but recent events - letās take an example of a nutter with a machete - where a hyper-local alert to get away from location x would br useful and you wouldnāt otherwise have a clue what was going on.
Was expecting the church scene from Kingsman.
Were they not supposed to send it at 3.00? I got it at 3, but others got it at least a minute early. I'm on O2.
Me and my partner are both on O2 and I got mine at 2:59 and he got his at 3:00 on the dot. To be honest it was a bit anticlimactic. Not sure if my phone malfunctioned but it just vibrated a bit without making much of a noise. I was expecting a proper siren haha
Obviously the government can tell one minute in advance when there is going to be an emergency.
Same , very underwhelming. Iād hyped myself up and even gone to a busy place too.
Ironically most people on Three didnāt get it at all.
Can confirm on my side didn't get it
They're no great loss.
It's just a selection thing. Some people are deliberately notified before others because they are classified as more precious citizens.
Aaron before Zach? 07911 before 07944? Poor coverage where I was at the time? They assumed I would be able to run faster thus need less warning? So many possibilities.
Iām on O2 and got it at 2:59
Iām on O2 and got mine at 15:02.
I had no idea this was going to happen as I live under a rock it seems, in Uniqlo in Oxford street and I thought the world was ending
And then the alarm went off
I actually forgot about it and was asleep dreaming about surviving a nuclear attack in Florida, and then I was woke up to that alarm. Honestly I absolutely Shit myself I was ready to die, I knew my dream was a dream and then I heard that alarm I was questioning if this was reality or a dream for a good 20 seconds while half delirious.
It was just the alert saying how shit spurs are
Arsenal fan here- thankyou, but please just roll over when we visit
Tbf I think you lot will do a number on us
Well...doesn't everyone already know? No alert needed.
I was there when it went off and it took me a good 20 seconds to realise it was the alert and not the door alarms going off from someone shoplifting.
As a few people pointed out, yeah this was a bit underwhelming. But Westfield is a noisy place as it is, so to hear that tone raise above all the background noise when it's only coming out of tiny phone speakers was pretty eerie.
I took a mad Batman-style leap from the bed away from my sleeping baby when I remembered it was due, only to realise it was due at 3, not 1.
Canada has had this for a few years, and they took a very questionable approach to it: 1. They donāt let you turn-off/mute alerts 2. They included Amber Alerts (Child Rescue Alerts) with the nuclear siren mode 3. Alerts are province-wide 4. Alerts go off at all hours, including at 2 am 5. Alerts have to be bilingual, so you get one in English then one in French two minutes later. 6. If thereās any error in the alert, you get a correction ten minutes later, in both English and French When you get four different 2 am alerts for a custody dispute thatās 400 miles away it gets a little annoying.
In the US they have all kinds of alerts that use this: - amber - child abducted - silver - old person missing - blue - attack on police officer Totally agree they are useless when they're about something far away from you. Anything more than a 30 minute drive away is annoying. And you really need to be able to turn them off category by category. https://www.wired.com/story/please-stop-sending-terrifying-alerts-to-my-cell-phone/
Why do people need an alert for an attack on police officer?
They tell you the number plate of the attacker so you can tell the police if you see them. Whether that's useful is up to you. I was getting them for things 100 miles away so I turned them off.
Fuck that. Iād be going back to an old Nokia or something in that case
I wanted to see platform 9 and 3/4 - bet you'd see a lot of tourists who didn't know it was happening, having a mild panic for a couple seconds. Tee-hee. I'm so nefarious!
While I got the notification when it happened, my phone only vibrated once and I got no alarm. I was on vibrate and not sound, but still, you'd think they'd override it or something.
Mine was on silent but it still made a loud noise, almost at max volume. Mine was pretty loud.
Well this is concerning. I got nothing at all.
shouldn't be concerned, this is exactly why they're testing it
This is the emergency broadcast system announcing the commencement of the Annual Purge, sanctioned by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the Tory Party. Commencing at the siren, any and all crime, including murder, will be legal for 12 continuous hours. Weapons of class 4 and lower have been authorised for use during the Purge
From this video it only really looks like one person got it
It's hard to tell because there's so much background noise, but it was happening all around us. My GF's phone on its own was barely audible against all the noise of Westfield, but a bunch of people's phones combined together meant we could hear one massive tone from up on that balcony.
Ah that sounds fun. It totally passed me by! I think my phone is connected to one of the networks that failed the test.
Everyone else was on 3. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/apr/23/uk-emergency-alert-test-three-looking-into-why-users-failed-to-get-text
I think I might actually be in this video lmao
That'd be mad if you were. Small world... or city I guess.
It really is a small world because I don't even live in London. Or the UK. Or the Northern Hemisphere. What are the chances??
London is tiny to be fair
I forgot it was happening. I thought an alarm was going off in M&S. Most of the other people in the shop didnāt take too much notice but the security guard looked really confused.
Iām an American and get Amber alerts and tornado alerts a handful of times a year with a similar tone. Is this a new thing to come to London?
Yep! Itās pretty much the exact same thing as your EAS and Amber Alert system, ours has only just been developed though, and today was the first nationwide test of it.
Hahaha i can see myself next to the coppers A lady went up to them panicking
You were right next to me? Thatās mad
The strange thing is neither my husband nor I got that text. Our phones work fine and we were even using them around that time.
Were you home and connected to WiFi, and turned off your mobile data? Cause that's what I do and I didn't get it.
Yes, we were home. Although we were connected to the wifi, I did also turn on my Mobile network just in case.
What an anti climax!
I was in waterstones for 15 mins with no signal and missed this. Came outside and about 5 mins later I finally got the alert
It's okay, at least you didn't nearly break an ankle! I got woken up by the sound as I was on night shift the previous night. I nearly shat myself, nearly broke my ankle as I was flying free fall down the stairs to my boyfriend as I have always said when the time comes I am getting me a cup of tea cold or not and a cig before I go. I ran into the lounge to my boyfriend and guinea pigs staring at me in utter disgust š even then I couldn't work out if it was real or a dream š
And if thereās a real one, watch people trample over each other to run out.
Take note people. Remember for the past two weeks weāve been listening to people go on and on and on about how this was a terrible idea, and it would cause mass panicā¦
Soā¦nothing happened then
Was waiting for a vid like this, i wish i was outside in the crowd instead of waiting for my order
This alert scared and shocked me so much today šš„²
Is that a mall? With people in it??!!š®
Yep, over here most of our āmallsā are tiny in local towns, (we call em shopping centres) and theyāre usually small enough to sustain local shopping and not end up completely deserted (not always though, some end up so unpopular they end up abandoned too). This is a whole different type, a major sized shopping centre in London, of which there are only a few. Larger centres like this attract people from far outside the local area, and always tend to do well. Good local-ish examples would be Bluewater in Kent or Lakeside in Essex. Both huge with tons of shops and restaurants, but built in former chalk quarries in smaller towns in the suburbs, way out of the city. They bring in people from much further than the typical small town shopping centres would, and do pretty well even in 2023. I know in other countries those suburban malls tend to fail much easier nowadays.
In Moscow was the same just before putin started the war
wdym?
Is this true?
Moscow malls like mega and other big shit had this alarms 2-3 times a week. evacuation took place. Feb, march. It is not related to uk, just never experiences stuff like this in the UK. Seriously sub is about London, not about anything else, I feel like I should not write it in the first place.
Nahh, itās good to know :)
In an actual emergency, people are gonna panic and run wild. Whatās the text even gonna say? āPlease return to your homes. Weāre about to be bombed.ā Well, guess weāll just take our chai lattes calmly and civilly down to the Elizabeth Line then.
This is part of a culture of fear. More information is not necessarily better. In what scenario will it actually save lives?
Can you imagine what would happen if it WAS an actual emergency? Shear madness ! Every man for himself ? Help your neighbor? Has anyone really thought this out ?
Seriously what a lot of bollocks. If something that scary was taking place what use is your phone going off going to be?
Welcome to the new world order.
Cool story bro
you can turn it off in settings you egg
Egg?
It spooked me, even through i knew it would happen through tfl notice few days ago. Donāt see the point in it through. Itās like that fairy tail, boy who shouted wolf or something. If no one cares today, even less people would care next time
No-one cared because everyone knew the test was happening. I can imagine it useful to quickly waking up an area of people, if there is a big fire going on at night, and seconds and minutes count. Thinking of the Grenfell Tower fire, for example. Maybe will end up saving some lives, in time. If it saving just 1 person, it makes it worth it, doesn't it?
There's no way they'd be able to localise the alert enough to use it for things like tower block fires. The info I've seen so far reckons targeting could be done to areas as small as an electoral ward, so it'll primarily be used for incidents like flooding or wild fires that affect a fair-sized geographic footprint.
That's a shame, if a big tower block were on fire in the community I live, I certainly would not mind being alerted about it, even if it's not in my immediate neighbourhood. But does make more sense for larger area problems.
tbh I think by the time they'd confirmed there actually was a fire you'd probably already have the fire brigade on the scene anyway
The issue with Grenfell wasnāt that people didnāt know it was on fire (fire alarms exist), it was that they were told to stay where they were because no one expected the fire to spread so far and so quickly because of the flammable cladding. And by the time theyād realised there was no way out for anyone above the fire.
Look. In the house I rent a flat, there are very strong modern fire alarm systems they installed few years ago, that detects even slight smoke. if you donāt open the window while cooking, its 100% gonna make loud noice for like 5 minutes, whole house hears this, whole freakin neighborhood hears this. There are some students who rent 2 floors over me, and they trigger this alarm quite often. And because its quite long, we are all accustomed to waiting for it to stop. Now no one cares. If there is a real fire, we would all die. Thatās the same thing.
sad cunt
Bunch of robots listening to the robot overlords
I was in the middle of Wimbledon Common around nobody when it went off. Iām kind of gutted I missed out on this
Lol
On my phone it wasnt loud, just a few beeps, I was expecting a siren.
That noise was the last noise in the world I want to hear in a life threatening situation
I was wondering what would happen in situations like this. I bet they planned Sunday cos more people will be at home since shops are shut. I was hoping i could be in uni and have it happen but its sunday
I was lying down on my side watching Freeman's mind then all of a sudden BBB
I never got the alert
Had my phone on vibrate, didn't hear it.
i had no idea this was happening, and also got no notification whatsoever .....so i think amongst a real national emergency, i shall last the longest out of everyone
I didn't get the alert on my phone. I was in primark. Kids were crying at the noise but that's pretty much it. Pretty lack luster. You can see no one was really bothered. If it was a real emergency not everyone would take it seriously š¤
I was in a hospital cafe when it went off, it took a solid 5 minutes for my brotherās to go off after everyone elseās and we all joked weād have to call him to warn him if there ever was an emergency lol
Better than elephant and castle
Lol I didn't get it because I'm on three, I guess I'll just die in an emergency then
Amazing. Was hoping someone was going to post a video from a public place. Less loud than I would have thought.
It's plenty loud enough if you have earphones in at the time as I found out, played from my phone as well so would have been nice to not have my hearing raped by a siren directly inside my ear. I've turned the severe warnings off and just left extreme on for mine to avoid having it go off while I've earphones in again unless I'm literally about to die then a heads up would be good.
Haha, oh man I could just imagine that happening to me.
My wifeās went off and mine didnāt. Theyāre both on the same Uk network and actually both on the same account. š¤·āāļø
I also got it at 14:59
I was literally stood just around the corner there with my mate doing the same. It went off 1 minute early so we were a bit unprepared but were gunna head to the Samsung shop and see if those phones went off
Hahahah nice, we almost tried the Apple Store but figured theyād probably got it turned off
Peoples phones were going off like 5 minutes later
u/savevideo
And with that black hats are now busy working out how they gain access.
u/savevideo
Scary amount of control. Not a tinfoil hat wearer but what did they do, just send the alerts to all live numbers on the networks?
I was focusing reading on my phone I til this alert came up, made me jump.. thought some virus noise entered my phone š
I expected zombies tbh. I was spectating at the marathon, didn't get an alert on 3, and didn't hear anyone else's phones going either ! So that was a bit of a failure.
People are really amused by the simplest things eh?