The Ukrainian security alarm product company Ajax Systems launched the Air Alert app after one day’s development.
It’s available in Google Play Market and AppStore. The app informs about the beginning and end of a civil defence alert in the region. No registration is needed: the user is only required to select the region. The product does not collect users’ or geolocation data. The app generates a loud alert warning of an airstrike, chemical attack or other type 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 duplicates civil defence sirens in cities, so the developers asked that Ukraine’s users consider those signals when reacting to the app notifications. The Air Alert app is an extra tool, not a primary civil defence alerts source. Civil defence sirens as the firm says are not so effective in remote districts, such as small towns and villages. Hence the use of an alternative tool with alerts to monitor the situation. The app receives signals from Ukrainian regional administrations, allowing people to react as quickly as possible. To receive notifications users have installed the app via Google Play Market or AppStore. They grant permissions to send notifications and critical alerts; and select the region in which you want to receive notifications.
An initial dozen included the capital Kyiv, the western regions Transcarpathian (bordering Slovakia and Hungary) and Lviv (bordering Poland), and to the east Donetsk region. Users receive notifications on the beginning and end of civil defence alerts.
Ajax meanwhile has stopped sales to and closed offices in Russia.
