On October 3rd, 2018 cell-phone carrying American citizens received the nations first ever Presidential Alert. At 2:18 p.m. eastern time, FEMA sent out the alert with a blaring sound paired with a vibration.

The new Presidential Alert is one of FEMA’s Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) similar to AMBER Alerts. FEMA decided to send out this alert as a test run. At 2:20 p.m. FEMA also released their Emergency Alert System (EAS) on radio and television. The alert had the title ” Presidential Alert” and below it read “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.” The message was also sent in Spanish to participants who requested it for their communities.

Many citizens were concerned about how the Presidential Alerts would be used and whether or not the President could send out his tweets via the alerts. FEMA confirmed however that the alerts would only be used for emergencies. They also stated that citizens could not opt out these alerts like they could AMBER alerts.