Alert Ready is a service designed to deliver critical and potentially life-saving emergency alert messages to Canadians over cellular networks. The Alert Ready system was developed in partnership with federal, provincial and territorial emergency management officials, Pelmorex Corp., the broadcast industry, and mobile service providers to ensure you receive emergency alerts immediately and know when to take action to keep you and your family safe.

Emergency alerts are issued to a targeted geographic area so that only people in the affected area receive the alert. Compatible mobile devices should receive the alert within seconds of it being issued. 

If your phone is listed below, it’s compatible with the Alert Ready system. To receive emergency alerts, your phone must be:

• LTE-compatible

• Running the latest software version

• Connected to an LTE cellular network at the time the alert is issued or join the network while the alert is still active

If you don’t see your phone listed, you won’t receive emergency alerts. If your phone is listed below but wasn’t purchased in Canada, you may not be able to receive alerts.

Apple

• iPhone 6/6+/6s/6s+

• iPhone 7/7+

• iPhone 8/8+

• iPhone X/Xs/Xs+/XR

• iPhone 11/11 Pro/11 Pro Max

• iPhone SE (2nd Generation)

• iPhone 12/12 mini/12 Pro/12 Pro Max

• iPhone 13/13 mini/13 Pro/13 Pro Max

• iPhone SE (3rd Generation)

• iPhone 14/14 Plus/14 Pro/14 Pro Max

• iPhone 15/15 Plus/15 Pro/15 Pro Max

• iPhone 16/16 Plus/16 Pro/16 Pro Max

Samsung

• Galaxy S7/S7+/S8/S8+/S9/S9+/S10e/S10/S10+/S20/S20+/S20 Ultra/S20 FE/S21/S21+/S21 Ultra/S21 FE/S22/S22+/S22 Ultra/S23/S23+/S23 Ultra/S23 FE//S24/S24+/S24 Ultra/S24 FE

• Galaxy Note 8/Note 9/Note 10/Note 10+/Note 20/Note 20 Ultra

• Galaxy Z Fold3/Z Flip3/Z Fold4/Z Flip4/Z Fold5/Z Flip5/Z Fold 6/Z Flip6

• Galaxy A03s/A5/A8/A10/A11/A12/A13 5G/A14/A15 5G/A20/A21/A32/A35 5G/A50/A51/A52/A53/A54/A70/A71

• Galaxy X-Cover 4/XCover6 Pro

Motorola

• moto g power

• moto g pure

• moto 5G

• motorola razr (2023)

• moto g play

Alcatel

• Go Flip/Go Flip 3

LG

• G6/Stylo 4/G7 One/G8 ThinQ/G8X ThinQ/Velvet

• X power 3

• Q60/Q70

• K30/K41S/K61

Federal, provincial and territorial governments are responsible for determining when and where to issue an emergency alert.

Each provincial or territorial government decides who’ll have the authority to issue alerts within their jurisdictions. For example, alerts could be issued by provincial, territorial or municipal emergency management offices, or local police and fire departments.

Mobile service providers are capable of distributing emergency alerts received from alerting authorities directly to their customers’ compatible mobile devices connected to LTE networks using Cell Broadcast distribution.

The Alert Ready system allows alerting authorities from federal, provincial and territorial governments to issue a wide range of public safety messages. Mobile service providers only receive and distribute messages that are issued for threat-to-life situations. To learn more about the types of situations that are considered a threat to life, visit the Alert Types section of the Alert Ready website. 

An emergency alert begins with a distinct sound, known as the Canadian Alerting Attention Signal, which is followed by the alert’s details. The sound will generally play at the volume your device is set at and may, depending on your device, override your settings.

An emergency alert may look like a text message, but it’s not. Emergency alerts aren’t billed, so they won’t appear on your bill.

No. Emergency alerts are relevant to you and require immediate attention. Government regulations mandate that all compatible mobile devices receive all relevant alerts.

Towers and antennas must be operational to send emergency alerts to compatible devices within the affected area. If you’re in the affected area but your device is not able to connect to a tower because of the situation, you won’t receive the alert.

While on WiFi, a compatible mobile device will receive an emergency alert if it can still communicate with the LTE network. If the device is not within reach of the LTE network or is set to connect to WiFi only, it won’t receive an emergency alert.

Visit the Alert Ready website to learn more about the wireless public alerting system.