AUSTIN (KXAN) — On Friday morning, Texans across the state woke up to their phones buzzing with a Blue Alert from the Texas Panhandle.
A Blue Alert is meant to speed up the capture of an individual who has killed or seriously injured a local, state or federal law officer, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. This type of alert started back in 2008, when then-Gov. Rick Perry signed the executive order that created it.
Blue Alert notifications, similar to an AMBER Alert, can be adjusted on your iPhone and Android devices. Consider changing the noise settings versus removing the alerts entirely, as these alerts are “an essential part of America’s emergency preparedness. Since its launch in 2012, the (Wireless Emergency Alerts) system has been used more than 84,000 times to warn the public about dangerous weather, missing children, and other critical situations,” the Federal Communications Commission website said.
Changing notification settings on a iPhone
iPhone users can go to their settings and then notifications to access the government alerts section. The section lists out various notifications for users to customize that include: AMBER Alerts, emergency alerts, public safety alerts and test alerts.
Users can go into the emergency alerts section to enable and disable emergency alerts and also be able to choose the notification to play with sound or for it to be silent.
There is also a feature available to active local awareness. Apple said this feature uses your location to “improve the timeliness, accuracy, and reliability of emergency alerts you receive.”
Changing notification settings on an Android
Android users can go to their settings menu and go to the safety and emergency section, then the wireless emergency alerts to access government alerts. This section lets users personally customize their notifications that include: extreme threats, severe threats, AMBER alerts, public safety messages and state and local tests.