I tried an experiment last night.
I learned yesterday that a group of software developers in Ukraine developed an app, called Air Alert, that would sound an alarm and notify Ukrainians living within a specific region whenever there was danger from the war. The alarm is controlled by the same people who initiate the air sirens within the local government.
Below is a description straight from the website.
The app instantly informs about the beginning and end of a civil defense alert in the region. No registration is needed: the user is only required to select the region. Air Alert does not collect users’ or geolocation data.
The app generates a loud alert warning of an airstrike, chemical attack, technological catastrophe or other types of civil defence alerts. Air Alert is the only application supporting critical alerts among similar ones. It means that notifications are delivered even in the smartphone’s silent or sleep mode. The app notifications duplicate civil defense sirens in cities, so please consider their signals when reacting to the app notifications. The Air Alert app is an additional tool, not a primary civil defense alerts source.
Civil defense sirens or other informing measures are not so effective in remote or new city districts, in small towns and villages. Therefore, it is necessary to have a reliable alternative tool with alerts to monitor the situation. The app receives signals first-hand from Ukrainian regional administrations, allowing people to react as quickly as possible.
Below is a sample of the warning audio that is played during an alert.
I decided last night to select Kyiv (Kiev) as my region. I was curious to see how many alarms I would receive. I ended up have 4 alarms.
Each time I woke up, checked the alarm. There is accompanying text with alarm. It is in Ukrainian, so I have been unable to read them. Even so, each time was sobering because I realized that likely people were being injured or killed by the raids. On one of the alarms, someone was actually speaking and giving information/instructions. That was impressive.
I cannot even really imagine or understand what the people in Ukraine were going through. While I was awakened by the sirens, they are TRYING TO STAY ALIVE when they hear them.
Unimaginable.
I decided to reach out to the developers of the app thinking that there was no way they would respond. Well, they did!
I thanked them for the app. Expressed my concern for their safety, which they in turned, expressed right back to me. They also let me know that in some future update, they may add an English version. They understand that there are some in harm’s way that do not speak or read Ukrainian.
Here is what the app looks like.
I pray this war ends quickly. I pray the strength of the Ukrainian people persists. I pray countries around the world provide ALL of the help they need.
Finally, I thank those who came up with the idea for this app and put it into action.
The Umenum 