Available for now only that to smartphones equipped with 4G and 5G, it succeeds the Saip, “population alert and information system”, deactivated in 2018 and deemed ineffective.
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The new French system for alerting and informing populations by telephone, FR-Alert, is operational from this Tuesday. It succeeds the Saip, “population alert and information system”, deactivated in 2018 and deemed ineffective. FR-Alert can be triggered by the prefectures in the event of serious accidents such as natural disasters, a leak on a petrochemical site, a large-scale fire or even an attack.
It is by a ringing of his telephone coupled with the message “Emergency alert” that each person will be informed if he is in a risk zone. The alert notification will specify where the danger is and the attitude to adopt such as “close your windows”. To receive the alert, there is no registration to be made on a site, nor an application to download. iPhone owners just need to update. Owners of an Android smartphone do not have to do anything. The alert will be sent even in silent mode, but not if the phone is in “airplane” mode or turned off.
The FR-Alert is currently only available to smartphones with 4G and 5G. Phones equipped with 3G and 2G will be able to receive geolocated SMS. This new system does not replace sirens, TV and radio messages, or alerts on social networks, but it complements them.