Launch and maintain alerts
Stay organized with collections
Save and categorize content based on your preferences.
The following sections describe how to launch and maintain public alerts.
Launch
Public Alerts works with you to set a time when your alerts go live. To keep
your alerts in good working order after you launch, continue to work with
Google as outlined in the following sections.
Maintain your alerts
To ensure a good product experience after your alerts are publicly visible,
maintain a dedicated and responsive team.
What to expect from Google
- Public Alerts regularly processes user comments and feedback and gathers
performance insights.
What Google expects from you
- Quickly acknowledge and resolve issues that Google reports to you. Examples
are downed feeds or unparseable CAP content.
Publish periodic test alerts
Work with your Google team to agree on a test schedule, especially if you only
publish alerts occasionally.
Follow these test guidelines:
Use <status>Test</status>, so the public doesn't see test alerts. Verify
that your other distribution channels also respect the Test flag.
Create test alerts for your most extreme event types.
Publish test CAP alerts to your normal production feed, not to a staging or
test environment.
You can use actual information from a past event, but make sure that the
<sent>, <effective>, and <expires> times are current to the test.
To make sure that the update mechanism works as intended, issue at least one
test update, cancellation, or all-clear message along with the initial test
alert.
After the test, Public Alerts follows up with you to confirm that Google
ingested the alerts successfully or to report any issues for you to resolve.
Notify Google Public Alerts about changes
To make sure that end users continue to receive correct alert information,
establish clear mechanisms to notify Google and the public about updates to
your CAP format or additional data.
Provide a news feed (RSS) like the
NOAA SCN feed, or send an email to
Google Crisis Response support
that announces all updates. Preferably, link to the new version of any updated
information.
Before you make major setup or configuration changes, email
Google Crisis Response support.
Announce changes well in advance, and include the expected date of the
implementation change.
If possible, Public Alerts wants to know about the following updates at least 30
days in advance:
- New types of alerts or events.
- Changes to the critical values of your CAP data for existing event or alert
types.
- Changes to your geodata or shapefile maps.
- Planned feed downtime or maintenance.
- New feed URLs.
- New certificates (before the earlier ones expire), if you digital sign CAP.
Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. For details, see the Google Developers Site Policies. Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Last updated 2025-08-28 UTC.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-28 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003ePublic Alerts requires ongoing collaboration with Google to ensure successful launch and maintenance of alerts.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eMaintaining a dedicated and responsive team is crucial for a positive user experience with public alerts.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eRegular testing of alerts, including extreme event types and updates, is essential for alert system readiness and verification.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAlert providers must promptly address issues identified by Google and notify Google of any changes to alert formats, data, or feed configurations.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAdvance notification to Google of major setup or configuration changes is necessary to minimize disruption and ensure continued accuracy of alert information.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Public Alerts requires a dedicated team to maintain the system after launch. Google will process feedback and provide performance insights. Publishers must promptly address issues like feed failures. Regular test alerts, marked `\u003cstatus\u003eTest\u003c/status\u003e`, should be sent on production feeds, including updates and cancellations. Publishers must notify Google about CAP format changes, new alert types, data modifications, downtime, new URLs, and new certificates at least 30 days in advance, preferably through a news feed or email to Crisis Response support.\n"],null,["# Launch and maintain alerts\n\nThe following sections describe how to launch and maintain public alerts.\n\nLaunch\n------\n\nPublic Alerts works with you to set a time when your alerts go live. To keep\nyour alerts in good working order after you launch, continue to work with\nGoogle as outlined in the following sections.\n\nMaintain your alerts\n--------------------\n\nTo ensure a good product experience after your alerts are publicly visible,\nmaintain a dedicated and responsive team.\n\n### What to expect from Google\n\n- Public Alerts regularly processes user comments and feedback and gathers performance insights.\n\n### What Google expects from you\n\n- Quickly acknowledge and resolve issues that Google reports to you. Examples are downed feeds or unparseable CAP content.\n\nPublish periodic test alerts\n----------------------------\n\nWork with your Google team to agree on a test schedule, especially if you only\npublish alerts occasionally.\n\nFollow these test guidelines:\n\n- Use `\u003cstatus\u003eTest\u003c/status\u003e`, so the public doesn't see test alerts. Verify\n that your other distribution channels also respect the Test flag.\n\n- Create test alerts for your most extreme event types.\n\n- Publish test CAP alerts to your normal production feed, not to a staging or\n test environment.\n\n- You can use actual information from a past event, but make sure that the\n `\u003csent\u003e`, `\u003ceffective\u003e`, and `\u003cexpires\u003e` times are current to the test.\n\n- To make sure that the update mechanism works as intended, issue at least one\n test update, cancellation, or all-clear message along with the initial test\n alert.\n\nAfter the test, Public Alerts follows up with you to confirm that Google\ningested the alerts successfully or to report any issues for you to resolve.\n\nNotify Google Public Alerts about changes\n-----------------------------------------\n\nTo make sure that end users continue to receive correct alert information,\nestablish clear mechanisms to notify Google and the public about updates to\nyour CAP format or additional data.\n\nProvide a news feed (RSS) like the\n[NOAA SCN feed](http://www.nws.noaa.gov/os/notif.htm), or send an email to\n[Google Crisis Response support](mailto:crisis-response-support@google.com)\nthat announces all updates. Preferably, link to the new version of any updated\ninformation.\n\nBefore you make major setup or configuration changes, email\n[Google Crisis Response support](mailto:crisis-response-support@google.com).\nAnnounce changes well in advance, and include the expected date of the\nimplementation change.\n\nIf possible, Public Alerts wants to know about the following updates at least 30\ndays in advance:\n\n- New types of alerts or events.\n- Changes to the critical values of your CAP data for existing event or alert types.\n- Changes to your geodata or shapefile maps.\n- Planned feed downtime or maintenance.\n- New feed URLs.\n- New certificates (before the earlier ones expire), if you digital sign CAP."]]
