I’ve seen lots of reviews complaining about the fact that sign up for this app is separate from city or county services. This app is a different service than what you get from signing up with your local authority. You can sign up for an account in the app, but it’s not necessary to receive location-based alerts. Paid subscriptions are only required to receive the severe weather alerts, and there’s lots of other sources for those. This app uses your current GPS location, wherever you are, to notify you of alerts that have been sent in the area. Not every jurisdiction uses the CodeRED system, so it won’t necessarily pick up alerts from anywhere you happen to be. However, if you are in an area in the United States that uses CodeRED, this app should send you a notification. Don’t just rely solely on this app! Signing up for your local county alert system will enable the delivery of text messages to your phone, which is also important if you may be traveling or otherwise not at your home when an alert is sent.

I know how to use a phone and a computer, I understand settings and how to set it up so important/specific notifications come through. We have had evacuations and fires in the last month so this real life use: How anyone could use this app during an emergency is beyond me. It’s frustrating, and basically useless to anyone who needs an ounce of help with technology. It lags, it constantly sends alerts with no way to mute or change the sound settings. ALL ALERTS BEING THE SAME MEANS NO ALERTS ACTUALLY MATTER. The negligence in making this app a PUBLIC SERVICE is almost criminal and I can’t believe they haven’t already been taken to court. DELETE IT and use any other means to get your evacuation info. Use Watch Duty or the emergency notification system built into your phone because this app will make a terrible situation worse.

There are three active wild fires in Colorado right now. One is pretty close to where I live. When I walk outside, it smells like burning wood. I’d like to be able to get an evacuation notice, so I could save mine and my dogs life. It is one in the morning and I have wasted over an hour of my life playing with these websites and apps for something that has no intention of making me any safer or aware of risks. The app does not work. It tells you that there are alerts in your area, but gives exactly zero description of what those alerts are. Is one of the six alerts I have “hey by the way your house is about to burn down”? I don’t get to know, apparently. And that’s not even touching on the nightmare that was creating an account. This needs to be fixed immediately. It’s important. It shouldn’t be this broken.