A FEMA National Emergency Alert Test Will Sound Off on All U.S. iPhones on Wednesday, and You Can’t Opt Out

Be ready for your iPhone to make an ear-piercing sound on Wednesday, October 4, as the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will be sending a test alert to all iPhones, Android phones, flip phones, televisions, and radios in the United States as part of a nationwide test of Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) via the Emergency Alert System (EAS). Oh, and you cannot opt out of the test.

The test is scheduled to take place at 2:20 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, October 4, and will consist of two separate test portions, although they will occur at the same time. The Emergency Alert System will handle sending the test message to televisions and radios, while the Wireless Emergency Alerts test will send the alert to all consumer cell phones and smartphones. The last Wireless Emergency Alerts test took place in August 2021.

FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) will handle the WEA test. IPAWS is a centralized internet-based system managed by FEMA, which has the ability to send authenticated emergency messages via several communication networks.

The test message will be displayed in English or Spanish, depending on the language settings of your device. The message will say “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.”

As you might expect for alerts like this, a loud and irritating noise will come along for the ride with the test message. The tone used will be the same tone and volume used for other National Weather Service warnings and Amber Alerts. The sound will be “similar to an alarm,” says Apple, and your iPhone and Apple Watch will also vibrate.

While the test is scheduled to run for 30 minutes, you should only receive the alert on your iPhone a single time. The alert will also appear on your Apple Watch.

Only smartphones that are powered on and connected to a cellular network will receive the message. Devices connected only to Wi-Fi or in Airplane Mode won’t receive the notification (aren’t you the lucky ones).

While iPhone users can usually dial *5005*25371# on their handsets to enable test notifications or dial *5005*25370# to disable test notifications, this will not allow you to opt out of Wednesday’s notifications. The test will override that setting.

“Recent models of mobile phones may include a setting to opt out of tests and alerts. None of those settings will affect the 2023 national test. If your mobile phone is on and receiving service from a participating wireless provider, you should receive the national test,” FEMA says.

The only way to avoid receiving this test alert on your iPhone is to power the iPhone completely off during the 30-minute window scheduled for the test. As pointed out by a helpful Reddit user, there are legitimate reasons that an iPhone user might want to do this.

“If anybody reading this has a second phone that you keep hidden from abusers, please turn that second phone off during the test so your abuser will not find out about it accidentally,” wrote the user.

If the October 4 test is postponed, a backup test will take place on October 11.