At 2:18 p.m. Eastern on October 3, your phone will vibrate, play a special alert, and show you a test emergency presidential alert. There is nothing you can do to stop it, you just have to turn off your phone during this time and even then it may show up when you reboot if it’s within the 30 minute window.
Also known as Trump Emergency Alert by some users on social media, it is similar to Amber Alert. Unlike weather and Amber alerts on your iPhone or Android phone, you cannot turn off Presidential Emergency Alerts.
Here’s what you need to know about the Emergency Presidential Alert quiz that’s coming to your phone soon or sending you here asking how to turn off presidential emergency alerts.
What is Emergency Presidential Alert?
This is an example of the Presidential Emergency Alert test.
There are three types of emergency alerts you can receive from the Wireless Emergency Alerts system; Amber Alerts, Weather Alerts and Presidential Emergency Alert.
You’ve probably received the first two as a screen message or voice alert over the past few years. This is the first test of the Presidential Emergency Alert in a while, and the first under President Trump.
When is the Presidential Emergency Alert Test?
The President’s Emergency Alert test is at 2:18 PM East, 11:18 PM Pacific. This test alert should reach your phone by 2:20 PM ET, but in some cases it can take up to 30 minutes. Carriers send the alert for a period of 30 minutes, but it shouldn’t come to your phone more than once.
Will the Emergency Alert Beep If My Phone Is On Silent?
If you don’t want this noisy interference in your day to be interrupted, you can put your phone on silent. With this mode on, you will still see an on-screen alert like at the top of this page, but you won’t hear any interruptions in your day.
The phone may still vibrate when this happens. It’s unclear what will happen if your phone is in Do Not Disturb mode during the Presidential Emergency Alert.
Can I Turn Off Presidential Emergency Alerts?
You can block some Wireless Emergency Alerts, such as amber alerts or weather alerts, but not president-issued emergency alerts. It’s called a presidential warning, but in this case it won’t come directly from Donald Trump.
CBS is doing a report on the new FEMA Presidential cell phone alert system incident, and the reporter asked this official if Trump could just send emergency messages, not just what he wanted, and this guy said “the protocols will get him away.” he is.”
— I Think Beautiful Haired Becky (@rh_thompson) October 2, 2018
Some people are not sold on the idea and are worried that President Trump might use this tool to send messages to people outside of an emergency. At this point, there is nothing you can do to bypass this warning other than to turn off your phone for 30 minutes at 2:18 PM on October 3rd.
Can I Skip the Emergency Alert Test?
While you can’t turn off Presidential Emergency Alerts, you can skip the test. At least in theory. According to this FEMA,
“Cell towers will broadcast the WEA test for approximately 30 minutes starting at 2:18 PM EDT.
This means you can skip the test if you turn off your phone completely from 2:15 PM to 2:50 PM East. This is not a way to bypass real alerts because you get the message before you have time to turn off your phone and skip it.
