FAQ

Frequently asked questions

In an emergency, it is vital that the authorities can reach the affected population as quickly and directly as possible. Alertswiss collects every detail regarding incidents in Switzerland, making it an information platform that can protect and save lives. The national Alertswiss app sends you alerts, warnings and information on a wide range of hazards such as drinking water contamination, power outages or forest fires directly to your smartphone. In addition to these reports, you can access extensive information on the given incident or hazard on the Alertswiss website.

Alertswiss is an alert and information channel operated by the federal government and the cantons.

The Federal Office for Civil Protection FOCP operates and provides the infrastructure for this website and the Alertswiss app.

The reports are issued by the agencies responsible for incident management. In most cases, these are the cantons or the cantonal police forces.

All reports which appear on the Alertswiss app are issued by the competent official authorities. Security measures (integrity protection) are in place to ensure that only reports from authorised providers appear on the Alertswiss app.

The reports remain valid until the all-clear is given or they are deleted. All-clear notifications are shown in green.

The app is available for iOS and Android systems. There are currently no plans to make it available for Windows.

All up-to-the-minute reports and information are also posted on the Alertswiss website: https:www.alert.swiss. The website is optimised for smartphones and tablet devices.

- USB content (photos/media/files): in order to let you export the emergency plan, it is stored on the USB memory. The app therefore must also be able to access the USB memory in order to import an emergency plan.

- Search for accounts on the device: To benefit from push notifications, you need to have a Google account. 

- Internet/network access: Various contents in the app, such as the blog, are retrieved via the internet.

- Disable sleep mode: required for receiving push notifications.

 

Go to «Settings» and click on the «Configure» button in «Favourites» to manage the cantons on your list.

The push notification service sends you reports for the cantons on your favourites list, and for your current location (if you have activated this service) as soon as this information is released. This lets you receive updates in real time on the ongoing incident or hazard. Please note that your smartphone needs to have a live internet connection to receive push notifications.

Yes, but you need to activate the «Current location reports» service. The app will then be able to access your mobile phone’s location services and therefore identify where you are and send you the relevant push notifications.

The most likely reason is that the push function is currently disabled. Go to Settings to activate this service and select the required message level (Information, Warning, Alert). Also, your operating system (iOS or Android) has to authorise the app to send push notifications to your device. We recommend that you add the cantons to your Favourites and activate the «Current location reports» (GPS).

Alertswiss is an alerting and information channel of the Federal administration and the Cantons. The decision as to whether an announcement should be made via the Alertswiss app and the website is made by the agencies in charge of event response. In most cases, these are the Cantons or the respective Cantonal police forces. They decide on their own authority whether an announcement should be disseminated via Alertswiss and if so, what its message should be.

The authorities that send out the announcements decide in which languages they are to be published. In this process, not all languages will always be considered. When announcements are submitted, they may include translations provided by Google. In that case, a notice will be displayed below the announcement. 

The Alertswiss App automatically adopts your device’s language settings. To switch languages, you therefore need to change your device’s language settings. The Alertswiss app is available in German, French, Italian and English.

Yes. If you want to load data, make sure that your device has an active internet connection. Please remember that the app only provides reports for Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein. If you require information on an incident abroad, please contact the relevant authorities in the country concerned.

In an emergency, you may be faced with fundamental questions: How do I contact my friends and relatives? Where do I go? What do I take with me? A current emergency plan helps you to respond rapidly and correctly, so that you and your family are protected as well as possible. We recommend discussing the emergency plan with your friends and relatives and checking it annually to ensure that it is still up-to-date.

If you wish to share your emergency plan with friends or relatives we recommend that you download the PDF version from the website, which you can then fill out, save, print or send to others by e-mail.

Under Article 13 of the Federal Constitution and the data protection provisions of the federal government, every person has the right to privacy and the right to be protected against the misuse of their personal data. The federal authorities comply with this provision. Personal data is treated confidentially and is neither sold nor otherwise passed on to third parties. 

The Federal Office for Civil Protection FOCP works closely with service providers to protect data as well as possible from unauthorised access, loss, misuse or falsification.

Alertswiss can be used to record personal data. This is data that users enter themselves in the emergency plan. This data is only stored locally on the user's device, unless the user actively sends it to a third party.

A user's location is not transmitted to the federal authorities and personal mobile phone data cannot be accessed.

Alertswiss notifications generally contain the following information:
- Description of the incident and existing danger

- What area is affected Instructions or recommendations on what to do or what measures the authorities have taken

- Additional sources of information, for example hotlines, websites or contact points

- Name of the competent authority or authority responsible for sending the alert 

Please contact us via the contact form if you have any comments or suggestions.