Twitter Alerts: Twitter Teams Up with Government to Send Emergency Messages to Users’ Phones

Twitter has teamed up with the government for the dissemination of emergency messages to users' phones during emergency situations. The new service is called "Twitter Alerts."

Since Twitter has become one of the important sources of news and real-time updates of things happening around us – may it be about someone’s personal life or national disasters – the company is now aims to make it easier for the government officials to disseminate emergency messages when it is greatly needed.

Twitter Alerts went live Tuesday and is now available to all levels of government organizations – from local, national up to international – and some of national agencies and organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO) and American Red Cross, which are, as always, active on the network during the previous disasters.

For Twitter users who have registered for alerts using their accounts, notifications will be delivered on the mobile number they have registered. Alert messages will look differently in the Twitter streams.

The company said the alert messages are intended for “crisis, disaster, and emergency communications." Emergency alerts about natural disasters, severe weather conditions, agricultural incidents and explosion and terrorism incidents are examples of the news and notifications that users can receive, the network said.

However, government organizations must apply first for participation in the program, the company added. Once officially in, they should increase the security on their accounts to put off hackers from being able to send fake alerts and spam users' phones.

According to Twitter, as of the moment, organizations are just allowed to send a limited number of messages and notifications hourly, but they can continue sending usual tweets.

AMBER and emergency weather alert messages, which users can choose to receive on their phones, are different from the Twitter alerts because those are sent by the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Emergency Management.