Smartphone users may receive loud emergency notifications as part of India’s preparations for a massive nationwide mock drill on Wednesday, May 7. Although the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has not formally confirmed these emergency alert notifications, it is strongly advised that all users nationwide enable emergency alerts from Settings.
For those unfamiliar, the upcoming drill, coordinated by MHA, aims to assess preparedness across 244 civil defence districts in response to “new and complex threats” in light of the current geopolitical scenario. It follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent high-level security meetings, the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, and Pakistan’s “Exercise INDUS” missile tests.
As per the reports, the May 7 drill could see India’s first nationwide test of its 5G-powered Cell Broadcast emergency alert system, a tech that is different from SMS or traditional mobile notifications. This technology, developed by C-DOT in partnership with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), can send congestion-proof alerts in multiple languages to millions of phones within seconds even during high network traffic.
These alerts will reach all compatible phones in the targeted areas without any need for phone numbers, even when the device is in Do Not Disturb mode. It works on both 4G and 5G.
Android Devices (Android 11 and above):
Note: Menu names may vary slightly across brands like Samsung, Xiaomi, or OnePlus.
iPhones (iOS 17 and above):
These alerts may appear as full-screen notifications with a loud alarm tone, even during video playback or silent mode.