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By Roger Fingas
Wednesday 03 October 2018, 06:06 PT (09:06 ET)
If you live in the United States, expect to hear a familiar warning beep on your iPhone later Wednesday, but this time, regardless of the region of the country in which you live and the settings of your alert. AppleInsider is testing Wednesday's Presidential Alert system test.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will issue a "Presidential Alert" on mobile phones at 2:18 am Eastern Time or 11:18 pm in the Pacific. "THIS IS A TEST of the national wireless emergency alert system", should appear a pop-up message. "No action is necessary."
Despite its name, the alert does not come directly from the office or smartphone of the president. Rather, in the case of a national emergency, FEMA officials organize with other agencies and the White House before getting a message across.
FEMA is required to test the national wireless emergency alert system at least once every three years, and since the law based on this system was only adopted in 2016, it is of the first test of this type. All major telephone operators participate.
The presidential alert should look like AMBER and the weather warnings Americans are used to, but with some important differences. It can not be disabled and will even reach phones that are not enabled or that lack a SIM card. Only devices that are completely off or in the process of calling must remain undisturbed.
If you own an Apple Watch, you can also see the alert appear there, as long as it is connected to your iPhone.
FEMA initially planned to conduct today's test in September, but this was delayed because it had to respond to a real emergency, Hurricane Florence.
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