App Profile: ShakeAlertLA

CoolRegman

Rating: 1/5

As a LA resident, this could be a must-have app. Sadly, it seems designed by individuals with no experience in even basic app design, or they do not do even the most basic beta testing, rendering it worse than useless because it just doesn’t provide alerts. After the recent set of earthquakes (where no one received alerts on the app), they revised the app. Still wont work: * If you click “provide feedback” in the support section of the app, it takes you to a USGS site that has interesting information but absolutely no place for feedback. This is a real gap in enabling feedback. The app needs to provide proper contact information. * If you travel, the app follows your location and only provides earthquake information for where you are physically located at that moment. We want to know information about where we live in SoCal all the time. Instead, we receive information about San Francisco, Washington DC, Dallas, Chicago, London, or wherever we are traveling. This makes the app useless. The app needs to be able to have a “home” setting. The solutions to both of these are very easy fixes, and would greatly improve the app’s utility.

SoBay Dad

Rating: 3/5

I fully support the idea of this app. We need it. You should download it now. This post is to provide feedback to make it better. The success of the app requires users to be taught what to look for when an alert comes in. There is no demo. Is there a sound played, like Amber Alerts? Or, the national emergency tones played on Radio and TV? Is there a notification shown on the lock screen? Will that notification and alert sound be played even if the device’s do not disturb function is on? Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing. I even scoured the internet and couldn’t find any examples of this thing being tested. Recommend that a demo video be added teaching uses what to look and listen for when the alert is triggered. I also recommend providing instructions about how to make sure the alerts are seen/heard...such as avoiding do not disturb and setting location services to “always on.” Until then, I am praying any alerts that come are able to be seen and heard...and that I can figure out that it is a serious alert and not yet another annoying news app notification about Trump’s dumb tweets.

Rt. Rev. Jeffster

Rating: 5/5

The first release is a beta version. Not bad. The only way to fully debug a real-time distributed system is to deploy it, and see how it works at large scale. There are millions of phones in LA County - there are bound to be snags, but they can’t be found until it’s tried. I’ve read other reviewers’ complaints: - it only works in LA County That’s where the sensors are, kids. Other local governments need to get with the program. - it tracks your location, and reports locally Makes sense. I want to know if *I* am going to feel an earthquake, where I am, right now. If I’m in Portland, and there’s an earthquake in LA, I’ll get the news, soon enough. LA sending notifications around the world is an unreasonable demand. My questions: - does it have anti-spoofing safeguards? If an alarm goes out, people are going to go completely ape. If it’s a false alarm, injuries may happen for no good reason. - will it override the audio on/off switch, just in case? I bump my switch all the time. - will it sound the alarm at max volume, no matter the present setting? A good warning system should wake the dead.