Over-Alerting and Alert Fatigue: How to Stop People from Disabling Alerts

The Impact of Over-Alerting on Emergency Notifications

Emergency notifications are a vital tool for public safety, providing real-time alerts about threats such as severe weather, wildfires, and public health emergencies. However, when people receive too many alerts—especially ones that feel irrelevant—they may experience over-alerting, leading to alert fatigue. Over-alerting occurs when individuals are bombarded with excessive or unnecessary notifications, causing frustration and ultimately leading them to stop alerts altogether. Unfortunately, this means they may miss critical warnings when they matter most.

Striking the right balance between keeping people informed and avoiding alert fatigue is essential for emergency alert systems. Alertable addresses over-alerting by prioritizing relevant, location-based, and customizable notifications, ensuring users stay engaged without feeling overwhelmed. By allowing people to opt out of non-critical alerts, tailoring notifications to their specific needs, and ensuring alerts are timely and actionable, Alertable helps reduce the risk of people disabling alerts—keeping communities safer and better prepared.

What Is Over-Alerting, and Why Do People Stop Alerts?

Understanding Over-Alerting and Alert Fatigue

Over-alerting occurs when people receive too many notifications—especially ones that seem irrelevant or repetitive. This leads to alert fatigue, a state where users become desensitized to emergency alerts, feel frustrated, and eventually opt to stop alerts altogether.

Alert fatigue is a growing problem in emergency communication. If people feel overwhelmed by frequent or non-essential alerts, they may start ignoring all notifications—including those that could save lives during natural disasters, severe weather, or public health crises. Emergency management teams must balance two competing priorities:

• Keeping the public informed by sending out alerts quickly.
• Preventing over-alerting so users don’t become frustrated and stop receiving notifications.

When emergency alerts are sent too frequently or lack relevance to the recipient, the system’s effectiveness is reduced. To prevent over-alerting, agencies must carefully manage the frequency, timing, and content of their notifications.

Causes of Over-Alerting and Why People Stop Alerts

Understanding the causes of over-alerting is essential to addressing why users stop alerts. Alert fatigue occurs when individuals are bombarded with frequent, irrelevant, or repetitive notifications, leading them to disengage from emergency alert systems.

• Excessive Alerts for Minor Events - Not all emergency alerts carry the same level of urgency. When users receive notifications for routine road closures, mild weather changes, or non-critical disturbances, they may begin to view all alerts as unnecessary. Over time, this can cause people to stop alerts altogether, reducing the likelihood they’ll receive critical warnings when they need them most.
• Untimely Notifications - Timing matters. Alerts sent in the middle of the night or during work hours, especially for events that don’t require immediate action, can frustrate users. If people feel like alerts are disruptive or intrusive, they may choose to disable notifications or ignore future alerts.
• Geographically Irrelevant Alerts - Receiving notifications not pertinent to a user's location is another major factor leading to alert fatigue. For instance, a resident in an urban area might receive flood warnings for a rural region miles away. These irrelevant notifications can erode trust in the alerting system, prompting users to stop alerts to avoid receiving further unrelated information.
• Repetitive Alerts Without New Information - Emergency notifications must provide value. If users receive the same alert multiple times without additional details or updates, they may start ignoring future alerts. Ensuring that every notification delivers meaningful, new information is essential for keeping users engaged.
• Lack of Customization Options - Many people prefer to filter the types of alerts they receive, but not all systems allow this level of customization. When users feel they have no control over their notifications, frustration builds, leading them to stop alerts entirely rather than fine-tuning their settings.

The Dangers of Opting to Stop Alerts

Opting to stop alerts can have serious consequences, as it often means missing vital information during emergencies. Emergency notifications are designed to provide real-time updates about potentially life-threatening situations, such as severe weather events, natural disasters, and public health crises. These alerts can offer instructions on how to stay safe, when to evacuate, and what steps to take to minimize risk. However, when users stop alerts due to alert fatigue or frustration with over-alerting, they risk being uninformed at critical moments. This could lead to dangerous situations where individuals are unaware of imminent threats, resulting in delayed reactions and heightened risk.

One of the clearest examples of the dangers associated with a person choosing to stop alerts was seen during the 2018 wildfire season in California. Emergency alerts were crucial in notifying residents about evacuation orders as fires spread rapidly across communities. Those who were tuned in to the alert system received timely warnings. This gave them enough time to safely evacuate and protect themselves from the approaching flames. On the other hand, individuals who had chosen to stop alerts were at a distinct disadvantage. Without real-time notifications, they faced the risk of being caught off guard by the fires, with little time to gather belongings or safely leave the area.

Beyond specific events like the California wildfires, the decision to stop alerts can have long-term impacts on overall public safety. When individuals disconnect from emergency alert systems, they miss notifications about immediate threats and broader public health and safety updates. Whether it's a severe weather warning, a pandemic-related advisory, or instructions during a large-scale emergency, staying informed is essential. Opting out of alerts undermines the purpose of these systems, which is to protect communities by delivering timely, relevant information that could save lives.

How to Prevent People from Choosing to Stop Alerts: Key Strategies for Reducing Alert Fatigue & Over-Alerting

Many individuals stop alerts when they feel overwhelmed by frequent or irrelevant notifications. To combat alert fatigue and over-alerting and ensure that critical information still reaches the public, Alertable has implemented several key strategies. These methods help strike a balance between keeping users informed and preventing notification overload, reducing the likelihood of people opting out of alerts.

• Escalation-Based Alerts: Prioritizing Critical Information - One of the most effective ways to prevent over-alerting is through escalation-based alerting. This system categorizes alerts into different levels of urgency, ensuring that users only receive high-priority notifications when necessary. Check out our blog on Weather Warning to understand Escalation-Based Alerts: The Role of Emergency Weather Warnings in Public Safety

To learn more about Escalation-Based Alerts, download our Alertable Guide on Effective Escalation-Based Weather Alerts.

• Allowing Users to Opt-Out of Non-Critical Alerts - One effective way to prevent alert fatigue is by allowing users to opt out of non-life-threatening notifications. By offering the option to receive only the most important alerts, such as those related to imminent dangers like severe weather or public health emergencies, Alertable helps prevent users from being overwhelmed. This approach significantly reduces the likelihood of users choosing to stop alerts.
• Implementing Location-Based Alerts - A major cause of alert fatigue and over-alerting is receiving irrelevant alerts for distant locations. Alertable utilizes geolocation technology to ensure that notifications are relevant to the user's current location. Instead of receiving alerts for distant or unrelated areas, users receive information pertinent to their immediate environment and any locations they have chosen to follow. This targeted approach reduces the chance of users feeling bombarded with irrelevant notifications, thereby decreasing the temptation to stop alerts.
• Customizable Notification Preferences - Each person has different tolerance levels for notifications. Offering extensive customization options is crucial for avoiding alert fatigue. Alertable allows users to adjust their notification settings, including the types of alerts they receive and the frequency of notifications. By providing users with control over their alert preferences, Alertable ensures that they only receive notifications that matter to them, reducing the risk of users opting to stop alerts.

Using Data and User Feedback to Reduce Alert Fatigue & Over-Alerting

Data analytics and user feedback are essential to help prevent people from wanting to stop alerts because of over-alerting. By analyzing user engagement patterns—such as the frequency with which people open or dismiss alerts—agencies can refine their alerting strategies to better meet user needs. Data-driven insights help ensure that users receive timely and relevant information, minimizing the chance that they will choose to stop alerts.

Additionally, gathering feedback from users about their experiences with emergency notifications allows agencies to fine-tune their systems. Understanding which types of alerts users find helpful versus those they find overwhelming enables agencies to develop more effective alerting strategies that keep users engaged and informed without causing alert fatigue.

Educating the Public on Why They Should Not Stop Alerts

Educating the public about the importance of receiving emergency notifications is vital for preventing users from opting to stop alerts. By informing users about how to customize their alert settings, agencies can help them manage the flow of information without disabling the entire system.

Public education campaigns can emphasize the critical role of emergency notifications in providing life-saving instructions during natural disasters or other crises. When people understand the value of receiving timely alerts, they are less likely to stop alerts and more likely to stay engaged with the alerting system.

Improving Emergency Alerts by Reducing Over-Alerting and Alert Fatigue

Over-alerting remains a critical challenge for emergency management agencies, but the right strategies can prevent users from choosing to stop alerts. By focusing on relevance, timing, and user control, agencies can ensure that emergency notifications remain effective without becoming overwhelming.

Alertable’s approach—combining geolocation, customization, and escalation-based alerts—helps build trust in emergency alert systems and reduce alert fatigue. When users receive only the alerts that matter most to them, they are far more likely to stay engaged and informed during emergencies.

As technology continues to evolve, ongoing innovation in alerting systems will play a key role in balancing public safety and user experience. The goal is clear: deliver life-saving information in a way that keeps people engaged, rather than pushing them to stop alerts altogether.

By prioritizing smart, user-friendly notification strategies, we can ensure that emergency alerts fulfill their purpose—protecting communities and saving lives.