I’ve gotten emergency weather alerts on my phone for most of my life, but didn’t get one today that another person in my household did. It’s …possible that they lied about this -but, still, it spooked me and I want to make sure that I get important weather alerts where I live. In my phone’s settings, it says that precise location had to be turned on to get emergency alerts from google (i have a pixel). I think this is garbage, and i would like to get around it. Emergency alerts are still a public service in the US, right? I should still get the really dire warnings like tornades and such regardless of what settings or apps i have on my phone? Or has that changed in recent years.
Tornado alerts, etc are often based on what cell tower you are connected to. Since a cell tower has a limited range then only phones in their vicinity get activated by the alert.
Thank you. I really appreciate this clarity.
One thing that Google does is estimate your location based on the WiFi networks around you.
When Android phones connect to the internet, they send to Google the details of WiFi networks nearby. If a user has their location (GPS based) turned on, the phone will send it’s location along with the WiFi networks info.
Google is then able to build a database from many user’s location with the networks they had around them. If your phone has its WiFi on (even if it isn’t connected to one), it tells Google “I see these networks around me” and then Google is able to tell your phone that based on the ones you are seeing you are probably in X location because users in that vicinity have seen the same networks.
The same thing can be done for cell phone towers so even if the phone has WiFi turned off, it can estimate a location based on the cell phone towers it is seeing.
So it is possible for Google to give you emergency alerts with precise location turned off but they probably have treated alerts as an “all or nothing thing” where you give them all your location data or you don’t get the alerts. I think their legal justification for not providing the alerts is that you can get alerts from non Google products (radio) and the precise location requirement is “vital” to make sure the right alerts are getting to you.
Google irritates me endlessly. But i’m glad to know my phone settings probably weren’t blocking a real alert. I think the person just lied. Thank you.
Where do you see it telling you you need precise location to see emergency alerts?
Your phone has two sets of things that could be called “emergency alerts”. One is the emergency alert system that’s controlled by the government and managed by your phone company. That one doesn’t require precise location.
The other is “crisis alerts” which is Google basically running a search for crisis near you and then telling you. This one may require more precise location.It’s entirely possible for your phone to just not get the cell network based alert. You can be connected to a tower outside of the alert area while someone right next to you is connected to one inside. Or you can just not get it because cell communications are imperfect. The issuer will typically resend several times to try to ensure it gets through to people, but it’s not perfect.
Thank you. This is what i thought.
