Contrary to popular belief, you can easily disable AMBER and emergency alerts on your iPhone, and it’s not illegal to do so. By default, these public safety system warnings are turned on automatically. Although often crucial, you might also find them to be anxiety-inducing. Here’s what you can do.
How to Disable Emergency and AMBER Alerts on iPhone
Standing for America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response, AMBER Alerts can have vital information about a missing child. Additionally, certain government alerts can contain critical information, including safety threats, or major alerts issued by your country.
These alerts may play a sound similar to your iPhone alarm going off. Considering these sounds and alerts can come across as problematic, it’s good to know how to disable them. Note that even if you disable Government Alerts, you may still receive them depending on the severity of the alert or due to laws in your region.
Time needed: 2 minutes
To disable AMBER and Emergency alerts, follow these steps:
- Navigate to Settings.
- Scroll down and select Notifications.
- Scroll all the way to the bottom until you see Government Alerts. Below it, you will see AMBER Alerts. Tap it to disable it.
- Emergency Alerts is directly below AMBER Alerts. Clicking it will give you several options: Emergency Alerts, Local Awareness, and Always Play Sound. Disabling Emergency Alerts will disable the other two options. Make your decision and then exit Settings.
That’s all there is to it. Once you disable AMBER Alerts, you will no longer receive them on the device. You can always revert your changes by following the same steps. Likewise, you might want to know how to mute notifications on your Apple Watch.
I have Amber Alerts turned off because I charge my iPhone on my nightstand and I will get them the next morning on the TV news and such. The other alerts are turned on.