Emergency Alerts
Emergency Alerts is a layout-level feature that automatically displays FEMA IPAWS emergency broadcasts on your screens when they are received. No one at your organization needs to trigger them — alerts appear and dismiss on their own.
This is separate from the Alerts system, which lets your staff push custom priority alerts manually. Emergency Alerts is for government-issued IPAWS broadcasts only.
How it works
Section titled “How it works”When your account receives an IPAWS alert (such as an AMBER Alert, Severe Weather Warning, or Planned Drill notification), it appears as a full-screen overlay on any layout that has Emergency Alerts enabled. The overlay shows automatically and dismisses after the configured auto-dismiss time, or you can clear it manually.
Enabling Emergency Alerts on a layout
Section titled “Enabling Emergency Alerts on a layout”Emergency Alerts is configured per layout. To enable it:
- Open the Layout Editor for the layout you want to protect.
- Click the Layout Settings (gear icon).
- Find the Emergency Alerts section.
- Toggle Enable Emergency Alerts on.
- Set the Auto-dismiss time — how long the alert stays on screen before clearing.
- Save the layout.
Any display running this layout will automatically show IPAWS alerts when they are received.
Settings
Section titled “Settings”| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Enable Emergency Alerts | Turn IPAWS alert overlays on or off for this layout |
| Auto-dismiss time | How long the alert stays on screen before auto-clearing (30 seconds, 1 minute, 90 seconds, 2 minutes, or never) |
Alert types received
Section titled “Alert types received”Emergency Alerts passes through IPAWS broadcasts including:
- Severe Weather — tornado warnings, flash flood emergencies, and similar NWS alerts
- AMBER Alerts — child abduction emergencies
- Weather Advisories — watches and less-urgent weather notifications
- Planned Drills — scheduled IPAWS test broadcasts
- Enable Emergency Alerts on customer-facing layouts in areas where public safety notifications are required.
- The 90-second auto-dismiss is a reasonable default for most environments. For attended displays, consider “Never” so staff can dismiss manually when the situation is resolved.
- Emergency Alerts overlays have the highest display priority — they appear over all other content, including custom Alerts.
Troubleshooting
Section titled “Troubleshooting”No alerts are appearing. Verify that Emergency Alerts is enabled on the layout the display is running. Check that the display is online — offline displays cannot receive IPAWS alerts.
Alerts are dismissing too quickly. Increase the Auto-dismiss time in the layout settings. Choose a longer interval or set it to “Never” to require manual dismissal.
Alert cleared before staff saw it. If you need staff to acknowledge alerts, set the auto-dismiss time to “Never” so the overlay stays until someone dismisses it manually.
What’s next?
Section titled “What’s next?”- Alerts — Push custom priority alerts from your admin panel
- Content Types — Explore all content options