Brits have been left scratching their heads after the national alert system failed to warn them of an, albeit, hypothetical risk to life.
87 million phones were supposed to vibrate, play a loud noise and provide a jump scare for an entire nation at 3pm on Sunday.
The government said it plans to use the system to issue real warnings, such as in severe weather or if there is a disaster that poses a severe danger to life.
Did your phone fail to go off? Get in touch with Barney.Davis@Metro.co.uk
But some Brits have complained they weren’t notified, which could be a bit of a problem in a real-life Doomsday scenario.
Teacher Katie Lathan said her alarm failed to go off on her Android phone. She told Metro: ‘Well I guess I’m out. No-one thinks to tell me anything any more.’
Austin Wellbelove, told Metro: ‘I received the message on my phone but there was no sound or vibration. My iPhone was set to silent, which was not overridden.’
Sean Kennedy, posted on X: ‘Well this emergency alert system is great. My phone is on Do Not Disturb and it didn’t go off. So if there’s some big emergency, an impending nuclear attack, anyone who’s in a meeting or taking a nap wouldn’t get notified. What a waste of time.’
When was the last emergency alert in the UK?
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The alert system has been used five times before in real emergencies, in smaller areas of the country facing a threat.
In total, it has been sent to around 10 million separate phones in genuine ‘danger to life’ situations since the system was introduced.
When an unexploded WW2 bomb was found in Plymouth, around 50,000 phones were sent an alert about needing to evacuate.
Warnings were also sent to 15,000 phones during severe flooding in Cumbria last year, and to to 10,000 phones in Leicestershire, which faced severe floods in January.
The most alerts sent so far were during Storm Darragh and Storm Eowyn, where 3.4 million and 4.5 million alerts respectively were sent to people in their paths.
