PrepAlarmPrepAlarm support
PrepAlarm gives you early warning of major threats at your current location, your saved locations and your family members: severe weather, flooding, major fires and hazardous substances, power and internet outages, and cyberattacks on critical services. There are three levels: an alert in the app, a warning, and an alarm that sounds even when your phone is on silent. PrepAlarm is not a government app and does not replace official alert systems such as NL-Alert.
Frequently asked questions
When does the alarm go off?
Only for an acute, official warning for the area where you or one of your saved locations are, such as an NL-Alert or a red weather warning. Signals from a single unofficial source (news, social media) never trigger an alarm. Under Settings › Sensitivity you choose how often you get a warning; the alarm is the same at every setting.
How do I test whether the alarm works?
Go to Settings › Testing and tap Test the alarm. After 10 seconds the alarm goes off, even with your phone on silent. With Test a warning you can try out a regular warning.
Why does the app ask for location access "Always"?
That way PrepAlarm can warn you even when you’re out and about and the app isn’t open. The app only sends a rough area of about 5 by 5 km to the server. No location history is kept.
I’m not getting any notifications
In Settings › Notifications › PrepAlarm, check that notifications are turned on, including Time Sensitive Notifications. Also check that a Focus isn’t blocking PrepAlarm. PrepAlarm sends a silent signal every few hours; if it stops arriving, you’ll get the notification "PrepAlarm unreachable".
Does PrepAlarm work abroad?
Yes. PrepAlarm has the most sources in the Netherlands; elsewhere it follows fewer. The Travelling screen shows what PrepAlarm follows in that country, the national alert system (such as FR-Alert) and the emergency numbers. Keep your phone’s Emergency Alerts on: they work everywhere, even without internet.
How do I warn my family?
Under Settings › Family you create a family and share the code. If a family member is in an alarm area, you get a warning with their name.
How do I delete my data?
In the app, tap Settings › Advanced › Delete My Data. Everything the server knows about your device is then erased. See also the privacy notice.
Sources and licences
PrepAlarm uses public data from sources including:
- KNMI, Rijkswaterstaat, Luchtmeetnet and NL-Alert (Netherlands)
- NINA / Bundesamt für Bevölkerungsschutz und Katastrophenhilfe and Deutscher Wetterdienst (Germany)
- MeteoAlarm (EUMETNET and the national weather services)
- Vigicrues and RTE éCO2mix, under the Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0 (France)
- Red Eléctrica (Spain), Elia (Belgium), EMSC (earthquakes) and GDACS (UN and European Commission)
- Alertswiss, © BABS / alert.swiss (Switzerland)
- Bundesamt für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie, © BSH, under CC BY 4.0 (storm surges on the German coast)
- Environment Agency (England): contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0
- ASNR, Autorité de sûreté nucléaire et de radioprotection (incidents at French nuclear power plants)
- LU-Alert (Luxembourg), AT-Alert / RTR (Austria) and BAFU hydrological data (Switzerland)
- IRCEL-CELINE (air quality in Belgium) and Elexon (electricity consumption in Great Britain)
- Generalitat de Catalunya, Protecció Civil (open data) and Dipartimento della Protezione Civile, under CC BY 4.0 (Italy)
- Fogos.pt, based on data from ANEPC (wildfires in Portugal)
- IPMA, Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera (weather warnings in Portugal) and ANEPC, Autoridade Nacional de Emergência e Proteção Civil (incidents in Portugal, under CC BY 4.0)
- GeoSphere Austria (weather warnings in Austria, under CC BY 4.0)
- APG, Austrian Power Grid (electricity demand in Austria)
- Bundesnetzagentur | SMARD.de (electricity demand in Germany, under CC BY 4.0)
- ENTSO-E Transparency Platform (electricity demand in Italy, Portugal, Ireland, Switzerland and Luxembourg)
- Natural Resources Wales, © CNC/NRW, under the Open Government Licence (flooding in Wales)
- NASA FIRMS: we acknowledge the use of data from NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System (fires detected by satellite)
- IODA (Georgia Institute of Technology) and Cloudflare Radar (CC BY-NC 4.0) for internet outages
Area boundaries:
- Provinces and regions: Natural Earth (public domain) and GeoNames, under CC BY 4.0
- NUTS regions: Eurostat GISCO, © EuroGeographics for the administrative boundaries
- Warning areas in Germany: © GeoBasis-DE / BKG, Deutscher Wetterdienst
PrepAlarm is not affiliated with these organisations. Warnings in a language other than your app’s are translated automatically.
Question, problem or idea? Email support@prepalarm.com. PrepAlarm is made by Esitec.
If you are in immediate danger, call 112.