Disaster can strike at any time. Luckily, there is Alertswiss, a mobile app developed by the Federal Office for Civil Protection to help you plan for and stay safe in an emergency. With Alertswiss, you receive alerts, warnings and information in real time. So that you always know exactly and immediately what action you need to take, the Alertswiss app sends you push notifications on the incident, including valuable tips and instructions on how best to protect yourself and your family.
The app also lets you customise the type of information you receive: for example, specifying the cantons that you want to receive notifications for, e.g. cantons where your relatives or friends live. All of these reports will be displayed directly on your smartphone’s homescreen. As well as receiving push notifications for your preferred cantons, you can enable push notifications for your current location. However, you first have to authorise the Alertswiss app to determine your location. Once you have activated the location services, all reports and information for both your current location and your preferred cantons will be displayed directly on your smartphone’s homescreen.
Maps show simply and clearly which areas are currently affected by the ongoing incident. On the overview screen, you can see which incidents are still ongoing and which ones have since been given the all-clear.
Under Reports you will find an overview of the latest official incident information released in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. These reports – alerts, warnings and information – are divided into three levels of severity, with alerts being the highest and information the lowest.
• An alert is when the authorities notify the public that they are at immediate risk and order them to follow official instructions on the behaviour they need to adopt.
• A warning refers to the reporting of either a potential risk to the public or an incident for which the authorities issue the public with recommendations rather than orders on the behaviour they should subsequently adopt.
• The default level of severity for all other reports is Information.
The Alertswiss blog features all the latest civil protection-related news, including information on recent deployments, drills and personnel, as well as up-to-the-minute policy and planning developments.
In an emergency, you may find yourself confronted with questions you have never asked yourself before: How do I contact my friends and relatives? Where should I go? What do I need to take with me? An emergency plan will help you take swift and appropriate action should a hazardous situation arise.
So, what are you waiting for? Download the Alertswiss app now and be prepared should disaster strike. Stay safe!
Note:
Your smartphone must have a stable data connection (WLAN or mobile network) to receive the latest push notifications and incident reports. If you are offline, you will only be able to view information that was updated the last time you were online. Once the connection is re-established, the system will update automatically and send you all of the latest push notifications and reports.
