Just in case the normal Emergency Alerts and AMBER Alerts aren’t waking you up enough in the middle of the night, there is an added attraction for you in iOS 15.6 and iOS 16. Apple has added a new “Test Alerts” toggle to the Settings app in iOS 15.6 and the third beta of iOS 16.
The toggle switch only shows up on iPhones connected to a U.S. carrier and allows users to turn on test emergency alerts from the U.S. federal government. So, if you’re in New York City, you can not only watch PSAs about what to do in case of a nuclear attack, you can also receive test alerts about such attacks.
By toggling the feature on, you’ll receive test emergency alerts to be received on both your iPhone and Apple Watch. The toggle is located in the Settings app under “Notifications” -> “Government Alerts” and is turned off by default.
The government will be responsible for the content and the frequency of the test alerts.
Support documents for the iPhone and Apple Watch are available with more details.
(Test Alerts graphic based shared by @MikeBeas)