This implies that governments didn’t already have this ability, which appears to be largely untrue? To my understanding, many countries already had emergency messaging systems, and mobile integrations are just a way of modernizing them.
(It seems exceedingly good that the government can warn every civilian about natural disasters, etc.)
Governments had poorly thought out poorly secured barely functional systems involving the network operators and those were then integrated with default system apps that have terrible UX without fixing any of the problems AFAICT. Agreed that it's clearly necessary functionality but it's worse than useless when it's so far proven to be (at absolute best) a constant stream of irrelevant alarms.
This is not related to Google or Apple. And this extreme alert, it's sent even to cable TV automatically.
In a few countries, it's sent even on Fax lines.
I've yet to receive one of those that was useful. Meanwhile the 70+ year old storm sirens mounted on the nearby office buildings work perfectly in my experience, being audible even indoors from many miles away.
Even then. During a recent storm, they went off erroneously in Denver. (Looks like the other two erroneous alerts were via phone though.)
> Denver emergency officials say they are working to rebuild public trust after a mistaken tornado siren activation Monday became the third improper emergency alert issued in the city this year.
