The exercise will take place on Sunday, September 7 at 3pm.
The government said this is to test improvements made to the UK’s emergency alerts system.
For those that do, the message will have ‘operator’ in the title and will confirm that no action is needed.
The government has reassured the public that operator tests are not alerting people of real danger.
If an operator test alert is received, mobile phones may emit a loud siren-like sound for around ten seconds, unless the device is on silent.
The government has also provided guidance on how to opt out of receiving operator test alerts.
For android phone and tablet users, the government recommends searching the device’s settings for ’emergency alerts’ and turning off ‘test alerts’, ‘exercise alerts’, ‘operator defined’ and ‘operator alerts’.
If these options are not visible, users can open the phone calling app, use the keypad to enter *#*#2627#*#*, then search the settings again.
For other mobile devices, the instructions vary depending on the manufacturer and software version.
