Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA): What They Are, Why You Missed One, What You Can Block
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How we wrote this: A plain-English summary of the FCC consumer guide on Wireless Emergency Alerts (last updated or reviewed September 25, 2025), checked October 29, 2026. Your carrier and phone maker control the exact settings menus.
That loud tone and vibration that takes over every phone in the room is a Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA). Here's how the system works, according to the FCC.
How WEA works
- The WARN Act established WEA in 2008, and it became operational in 2012. The FCC says it has been used nearly 96,000 times since launch.
- Authorized national, state or local officials send alerts through FEMA's Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) to participating wireless carriers, which push them to compatible phones in the affected area.
- It's free, and you don't sign up. If your carrier participates and your phone is WEA-capable, you get alerts.
- WEA doesn't track your location. Alerts are broadcast to an area, and phones there receive them, including visitors roaming from another state.
- They aren't ordinary texts. Many providers send WEA with technology separate from voice calls and SMS.
The four alert types
| Type | Who sends it | Can you block it? |
|---|---|---|
| National Alerts | The President or the FEMA Administrator | No |
| Imminent Threat alerts | Authorized officials, for threats to safety or life | Carriers may let you |
| AMBER Alerts | Authorized officials, for missing children | Carriers may let you |
| Public Safety Messages | Authorized officials, with life-saving recommendations | Carriers may let you |
The FCC says participating carriers may let subscribers block all but National Alerts; Congress didn't allow National Alerts to be blocked. Look in your phone's notification or emergency alert settings.
Why someone else got an alert and you didn't
Per the FCC, your phone must be:
- WEA-capable (ask your carrier; CTIA publishes lists of capable phones),
- switched on and not in airplane mode, and
- getting service from a participating carrier's tower in the alert area.
Participation is voluntary. A carrier may offer WEA in only part of its area or on only some phones, and carriers that don't participate must tell their customers. Prepaid phones get alerts too if the provider participates.
How precise alerts are
Targeting has tightened over time. At launch, alerts could go to a whole county; from 2017, to an area that best approximated the emergency. Since December 2019, participating carriers must deliver alerts to the area the sender specifies with no more than a 1/10 of a mile overshoot.
For small businesses
Don't rely on everyone's phone settings for workplace safety. Keep your own emergency plan, and see our guides to text-to-911 and VoIP 911 and Kari's Law.