How do we turn off the Amber Alert notifications?

[drathos]

Late addition, I know, but I found this after getting the same alert 5 times in less than an hour and 8 times in the span of 6 hours.

I live in the DC area, but this is the first time I've ever received an Amber Alert on my phone. I want to leave it on, because I think it can be a useful tool in finding these kids (and those who complain about the distance, think about how far an abductor can get in a couple of hours).

HOWEVER, constantly sending out the same alert is only going to annoy people and make them want to turn it off, which ruins the whole purpose. I also tend to agree with the complaints about getting them in the middle of the night. 95% of the population will be asleep and in no position to be on the lookout for the person or car but they will be annoyed at being awakened and, again, it will drive people to turn it off.

 

[James Falconer]

@All - found myself reading through this thread and the following article from Phil immediately came to mind. Worth a read when you have a few:

AMBER Alerts and Android - What you need to know

 

[RoadTripA1A]

You should not be upset with people wanting to turn this feature off. You should be upset with the Android developers for making this feature so obnoxious that no one wants to keep it enabled. A simple notification and vibration is all that is needed to get peoples attention and this isn't even an option within the settings so you are forced to disable completely. The Android developers should be ashamed of themselves for making what should be a welcomed lifesaving feature so poorly implemented.

 

[stupid-alerts]

You should not be upset with people wanting to turn this feature off. You should be upset with the Android developers for making this feature so obnoxious that no one wants to keep it enabled. A simple notification and vibration is all that is needed to get peoples attention and this isn't even an option within the settings so you are forced to disable completely. The Android developers should be ashamed of themselves for making what should be a welcomed lifesaving feature so poorly implemented.

Absolutely! It is obnoxious beyond belief. They assume:
1. That I want to receive them
2. That I am deaf

This is the first time I have ever received an alert and it was in an area over 3 hours away by car. The tone was deafening even though my phone's volume was off!! Are they being remotely serious? And who do the carriers/google think they are giving us phones with this option enabled? You have to opt in for text messages, emails etc. so why would this be any different?

While I can understand the terror the parents face at that moment, this approach is JUST PLAIN WRONG and OFFENSIVE. It will result in people not only opting out but also becoming apathetic. If you are going to blare sirens at people in the middle of the night, you had better make sure it is for a good reason or else it will have the opposite effect. I wonder what genius thought of this.

I have disabled all alerts and if I hear that damn thing again I am throwing away my phone and cancelling service. ENOUGH!

 

[dad2noah]

I can't believe this thread is still alive. 15 months later, and a quarter of a million views. Is this some sort of android central record?
The only reason I notice it, is because I think I was the 5th or 6th person to reply to the OP OVER A YEAR AGO, lol
And the amount of "1 post" posters is kinda funny.
I mean, with a month in between bumps, how do you people "stumble" on this thread? You must be digging pretty hard in these forums, lol

 

[Khemo]

I agree.

Amber alerts were reactivated on my phone after I did a factory reset and forgot that I had previously disabled them because some were for locations more than a 1000 miles from my area code.

I just got 8 identical amber alerts. 6 were actually sent after the amber alert was cancelled, the last one 5 hours after it was cancelled. Obviously this system is not ready for prime time. I am turning off amber alert notifications until this is fixed. One alert would have been enough and having an alert 5 hours after it was cancelled is not appropriate. Unless the problem is fixed, no one will be getting the alerts because they will turn them off.

The reason I ended up at this post is I could not figure out how to disable the alerts.

 

[jjblackcat7]

Exactly what I needed! Thanks! Wonder why my device took so long to start this? I have TMobile, so maybe they waited longer than other carriers. iphone users were telling me to go into notifications, and that wasn't working for my galaxy s3.

 

[zannall]

Crown > BD

 

[SinisterLegion]

!!!

 

[SinisterLegion]

On behalf of all parents, please leave it on

On behalf of all responsible people, PLEASE WATCH YOUR CHILDREN BETTER!
You're supposed to be parents, nothing should be more important, 400 Million people and countless tax dollars should not be left picking up your slack, you're parents, act like it.

 

[neonworm]

On behalf of all responsible people, PLEASE WATCH YOUR CHILDREN BETTER!
You're supposed to be parents, nothing should be more important, 400 Million people and countless tax dollars should not be left picking up your slack, you're parents, act like it.

Parents can't be with their children all the time. They are not with their children while they are walking home from school, going to a friends house, etc.

 

[SinisterLegion]

Parents can't be with their children all the time. They are not with their children while they are walking home from school, going to a friends house, etc.

Then pick them up from school and drive them to their friends house or risk losing your child. You can't drive them home you say? Then have a relative do it, or pay a nanny IF you have to work, otherwise don't have children, you are not the right type of parent if you have to rely on the whole country to watch out for your kids.

I don't mind looking out for a kid here and there if I happen upon one that seems lost, but it really chaps my hide that because parents can't take care of their kids an entire country has to be turned upside down and countless dollars in expenses be made. I was at a job interview when this thing went off, the point is, either take care of your kids the way they need to be taken care of or don't have them at all. There is ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE for this PERIOD.

 

[risett2438910]

Always a day late and a dollar short...

Great to have an answer on this. Just got my first notification -phone was on vibrate so it didn't make a scary noise, sound like a nucular blast or give me a heart attack.

To those who think the alert is a good thing, hooray, leave it on.

To those that don't like it, turn it off.

To all those with or without kids, on job interviews or in busy meetings, or with elderly parents waiting for an emergency call, in short, any of you judging others for their preference regarding the emergency alert feature, GFYs.

 

[Kilroy13]

I turned mine off as soon as I figured out how! To be frank with y'all, I could care less about someone else's problems! I know what and where everyone in my family is doing at all times! Its called parenting!

Sent from my LG-LS995 using Tapatalk

 

[Ellie Masters]

Amber alerts are not "useful tools" - they're an hysterical expression of parental egotism.

 

[smvim]

Parents can't be with their children all the time. They are not with their children while they are walking home from school, going to a friends house, etc.

This is the reborn America where the self-absorbed can justify and rationalize their own entitlement. The 'Great Generation' that lived through the Depression and WWII who had a sense of community have been banished to nursing homes or have left us. Now we have the wondrous Internet to share our self-important beliefs.

 

[Madelinematinee]

Thanks for posting this! I wasn't sure how to go about it! It's ridiculous how I could not figure this out...with an engineering degree. Ha, I figured it out for my older model. Got it now! TY♥

 

[eibbed0001]

For the Samsung Galaxy S3 with Kitkat:
Look in your app drawer for an app called Emergency Alerts, then menu, settings, then alert types. Here you can remove Amber Alerts.

 

[Phil Brewster]

Love it. Figured out how to turn mine off last year after repeatedly getting them several nights in a row over custody battles between ignorant parents that lived hours away from me. Have never seen one that corresponded to any actual child abduction, just divorcees acting like children. Now, apparently they've bypassed the "opt-out" system. The setting no longer appears on my phone in the messaging app and I'm getting them again in the middle of the night for cases that aren't even in my state. Last night a 5 am some ignorant, trailer-trash,12 year old snuck out to visit her boyfriend and woke up 2 million people . . .

 

[smvim]

Phil, you should think about moving to a less contentious area. We live in the 'burbs just minutes away from Chicago and don't receive anywhere near the number of Amber Alerts you're claiming to get. Taking into consideration the population density around here you're in a much more disruptive area. It's not even a matter of how annoying you find Amber Alerts, it's your own quality of life. Really, just relocate to somewhere quieter, and just going by the tone of your comments, a less racially-diverse place.

Love it. Figured out how to turn mine off last year after repeatedly getting them several nights in a row over custody battles between ignorant parents that lived hours away from me. Have never seen one that corresponded to any actual child abduction, just divorcees acting like children. Now, apparently they've bypassed the "opt-out" system. The setting no longer appears on my phone in the messaging app and I'm getting them again in the middle of the night for cases that aren't even in my state. Last night a 5 am some ignorant, trailer-trash,12 year old snuck out to visit her boyfriend and woke up 2 million people . . .