The U.S. government recently tested its emergency notification system. You can opt out of these messages.
There’s a way to prevent your iPhone from blaring out a loud alarm whenever the feds or local governments use the Wireless Emergency Alerts system. Turning off Emergency Alerts on an iPhone is actually quite easy, though it is more complicated than putting your phone in Silent mode.
Here’s how.
Emergency alerts are for your safety
On October 4, FEMA and the FCC tested the WEA system by sending out a text message to all phones in the United States, whether iPhone or Android. This was accompanied by a loud alarm. It was only a test of a system that federal and local governments use to warn residents of emergencies, but it drew attention to the system and a certain amount of ire.
But this should be a somewhat familiar process. It’s similar to the Amber Alerts that go out occasionally to warn of the abduction of a child.
iPhone users have the option to completely shut these off, and there are some good reasons to do so. Those with PTSD can be triggered by the warning alarms. Victims of domestic violence frequently hide phones from their abusers, and these audible alerts go off even with the device on Silent mode.
However, there are also bad reasons to silence them, like not wanting to be bothered. The Wireless Emergency Alerts system was used to warn Maui residents to flee deadly wildfires. Alerts go out for tsunamis and other genuinely dangerous conditions, too.
How to stop iPhone from playing government emergency alerts
You can’t avoid these emergency alerts by simply putting your iPhone on Silent mode or Do Not Disturb. They are intended to warn of life-threatening danger so waking up someone from a nap or interrupting a meeting is considered necessary.
There’s a quick way to silence a WEA alarm while it’s actually going on: Press the volume-down button on the iPhone. That will shut off the noise while still displaying the warning message.
But these warnings can also be permanently turned off, if you’re willing to take the risk. On the iPhone, open Settings > Notifications then scroll way down to the bottom of the window to Government Alerts.
There are toggle switches for Amber Alerts and Public Safety Alerts. Test Alerts has its own toggle higher up on the Notifications screen. Under Emergency Alerts, there is the option to toggle these on or off. But there’s also a toggle for Always Play Sound. With this off, the alert sounds will not play when the iPhone is in Silent Mode.
iOS 26.2 added a new category called Enhanced Safety Alerts. This one is separate, available in the United States and Taiwan, and comes from Apple rather than your carrier, so the toggles above don’t apply. Three switches sit inside. Earthquake Alerts and Imminent Threat Alerts are on by default, and Improve Alert Delivery is off.
Open Settings > Notifications, scroll past Government Alerts to Enhanced Alerts, then tap Enhanced Safety Alerts to flip any of them off.
You can get a few more details about how emergency and government alerts work on Apple’s support website.
See also: How to send texts by emergency SOS via satellite on iPhone
