How to turn off Amber alerts on iPhone or Android

By Tom Bedford 6 hours ago

And what they do

The iPhone 12 mini

(Image: © TechRadar)

Amber alerts are important notifications the government sends you to alert you of missing persons in your area, and by default your phone will alert you to them. Some people find them annoying, so we've got a guide on how to turn them off on your iPhone or Android device should you want to.

Before we go any further, we should strongly advise you not to turn off Amber alerts. Amber alerts notify you of child abductions in your area, and can be life-saving if you've potentially seen something that can help an investigation, or just want to keep your loved ones out of danger.

You can read more about Amber alerts and where they're active on Wikipedia's page for them.

Some may still want to turn them off on their iPhone or Android device though, either because they really don't want to see the notifications, or because they have multiple smartphones and don't want to get the same alert on both. So here's how you do that.

How to turn off Amber alerts on iPhone

On your iPhone, head into the Settings menu, then select Notifications.

At the bottom, there should be an option for Government Alerts - note, if you can't see this, it might be because Amber alerts aren't even a thing in your country. In that case, there's no need to turn them off.

Here, you can toggle Amber alerts on and off, as well as Emergency and Public Service alerts which are different tiers of warning. 

How to turn off Amber alerts on an Android phone

Android phones from different brands have slightly different ways of finding Amber alerts in the menu, but most reliably have a way to toggle them in the text messaging app.

So head over to your text messages app (they have different names in different user interfaces), then on the main menu (where you see all your messages), press the options button (the three vertical dots in the top left).

From here press settings, then Wireless Alerts, Emergency Alerts, or something to that effect - different brands title it slightly differently.

On some phones, you should see an option here for Amber alerts which you can toggle or change. Other phones require you to tap another options button in the top left, and press settings from here, to see the Amber alerts notification.

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