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Waze app to get AMBER alerts, help users look out for missing & abducted children

Waze, the free crowdsourced navigation and traffic app, is to get AMBER alerts in the U.S., helping users look out for missing and abducted children. You’ll only see alerts for children in your local area, and for safety reasons details will only appear once your vehicle has been stationary for at least ten seconds.

AMBER alerts are created by law enforcement agencies to quickly alert members of the public to children who have been reported missing or are believed to have been abducted. Waze says the app will scan for new alerts every ten minutes, though once you’ve dismissed an alert it won’t be shown again for a further week.

Alerts will display all the information available, which will normally include a photo of the child, their name, age, description, where they were last seen, what clothing they were wearing and details of any vehicle known or believed to have been involved.

The update is expected to roll out shortly in the U.S. only. Waze is a free download from iTunes. It was last updated in December, with an iOS widget and improved traffic data.

Facebook added AMBER alerts to its mobile apps in January.

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Comments

  1. standardpull - 9 years ago

    Great, all we need is Waze to revise more reasons to distract drivers. The countless ads are not enough. Who knows how many dozens of kids are injured and killed each year due to the high distraction factor of Waze.

    • Ben Lovejoy - 9 years ago

      “for safety reasons details will only appear once your vehicle has been stationary for at least ten seconds”

  2. Wyatt - 9 years ago

    Kind of pointless now that AMBER alerts are a standard notification built into every smartphone.

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Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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