Brits despair as nationwide emergency alert fails to go off for thousands

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.’

Tech expert 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. I really hope these are very isolated incidents, the government should be working with technology partners to identify issues with the alert system well in advance of a nationwide test.’

In the Ireland v New Zealand Women’s Rugby World Cup at Brighton there was an announcement on the big screen a minute before the alert and then the referee briefly paused the match while it was happening.

Theatre-goers were advised to turn their phones off and drivers were urged not to be distracted behind the wheel.

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Lucy Wright-Perkins was concerned her phone didn’t go off at all.
She told Metro: ‘The alert didn’t go off on my phone today. Makes me worry that it will fail in a real emergency.’

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.’

Blaize Moisley, from North Shropshire, found it tough to take that the government seemingly valued their partner’s life more than their own.
‘He got the alert but I didn’t.

‘My partner has a Google phone and is with EE. His alert went off at exactly 3pm for the expected time and format, whereas I was in another room just a bit startled.

‘I usually hate the alerts, but they are meant to be a really good system for anything dangerous to life and severe disruptions.

‘I got the one a few years back and it worked fine, so it was a bit surprising that it seems like more people didn’t get it this time despite in theory, the system should be more improved.’#

Hayley Honeyreade, echoed Blaize’s concerns, saying: ‘Well, I didnt get an alert. Maybe they don’t want me to survive?

‘My husbands did though so together we have half a chance.

‘At the end of the day though, this is what tests are for. I just hope they sort it before a real emergency.’

Frances Pledger said she had been forgotten completely: ‘Nothing, not even a beep.

‘I’m on the latest Android software and got zilch coming through. Seems the government couldn’t even send a simple text to everybody.’

Adele Green emailed in to say: ‘My husband and I each have fairly new mobiles plus a tablet and we failed to receive any government alert on any of these devices. We were watching the clock, awaiting the siren.

‘This happened to us last time as well.’

It would also be too late for Denise Britten, who still hadn’t got the alarm at 4pm. She said: ‘I waited with baited breath but still nothing received yet. My iPhone has all the updates too.’

But the Metro‘s own SEO reporter Jack Slater had a completely different experience. ‘I had the opposite problem – I got the alert three times. Sir Keir must really want me to survive.’

Other small businesses saw a chance to advertise their wares despite the threat being entirely hypothetical.

Shirley Brace told Metro: ‘I did get the alert I nearly jumped out of my skin as I forgot about it.

But I also got two follow-up messages from my local chip shop and Chinese restaurant saying

‘”This is not a drill get your fish and chips from us before you starve to death”.

‘Which was shocking and should not happen. How will old people understand if it’s real or not?’

George Hall added: ‘The alert has completely bricked [caused a data corruption] my phone. I’m currently on call with the service provider and being bounced around like there’s no tomorrow.’

Despite the reported failures prime minister Sir Keir Starmer said tens of millions of phones did successfully sound.

He posted on X saying: ‘Tens of millions of phones successfully sounded across the country during today’s Emergency Alert test.

‘This is an important step in keeping people safe during national emergencies.’

When was the last emergency alert in the UK?

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.