How to turn off AMBER Alerts on your Apple iPhone

AMBER Alerts is an emergency notification system developed by the United States. While these alerts are essential for public safety, they can sometimes be disruptive and disturb your daily activities.

While you can't turn off AMBER Alerts on your TV, radio, or roadside billboards, you can disable them on your Apple iPhone to stop receiving distracting notifications.

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What are AMBER Alerts?

AMBER stands for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response. It is an emergency alert system to find missing or abducted children. These alerts are widely broadcast across the United States through various channels, including commercial and public radio stations, smartphones, roadside digital billboards, internet radio, television stations, and text messages.

AMBER Alerts use multiple communication methods to ensure that as many people as possible receive them. In addition to the United States, the system is also active in countries like France, China, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Russia, and more. It helps with international abduction cases.

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Steps to turn off AMBER Alerts on your Apple iPhone

Follow these steps to turn off AMBER Alerts on your iPhone:

1. Open the "Settings" app. This app can be easily found on your home screen.
2. Scroll down until you see "Notifications." Tap on this option.
3. Click on the "Government Alerts" option.
4. Toggle off "Amber Alerts." You can also turn it on using the same steps.

It's important to note that turning off AMBER Alerts may also disable other emergency alerts, such as those for natural disasters and public safety threats.

If you want to keep these alerts on but only turn off AMBER Alerts, you can do so by leaving the "Emergency Alerts" toggle switched on while disabling the "Amber Alerts" toggle.

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Should you turn off AMBER Alert?

While AMBER Alerts are critical for locating missing children, there are some instances where receiving them is not necessary. For example, if you live in a different state or city than where the AMBER Alert was issued, receiving the notification may not be helpful.

In other cases, you may be in a situation where being disturbed by a loud notification can be a distraction or an inconvenience, such as during an important meeting or while you're driving.

If you are not facing any significant disturbance, you are advised to keep this alert option on, as it helps in many lost and found cases. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's report in August 2013, approximately 657 children have been successfully recovered thanks to the AMBER Alert program's existence.