Our 7 Favorite Emergency Alert Apps

Life360: Family Location Tracker

Location tracking is essential during any emergency, and Life360 is the best way to do it. It's one of our favorite phone tracking apps to monitor the whereabouts of friends and family. It lets you get alerts when they leave and arrive at the locations that you set up.

Constant location monitoring might seem excessive for some people, but you’ll be happy you installed it when an emergency strikes. For example, if you hear about a school emergency or a storm in the town where your daughter lives, anybody in the group can pull up the app to see where everybody else is located.

If there's a storm brewing where a loved one lives or will be visiting, you can even make a new place alert right there so that you'll know the second they cross that path.

Life360 has a free plan with basic features for Android and iOS users.

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Nextdoor: Location-Based Social Network

Community is important during an emergency. Nextdoor is a social network for your community that can also serve as an emergency broadcast alert app. If someone in your area reports an emergency through the app, you’ll be the first to know about it. 

Once you’ve connected with your neighborhood through the app, you can communicate with people to find shelter, organize the sharing of food and water, get updates on the emergency, etc. Just be sure to see our tips on staying safe while using Nextdoor.

It runs on iPhone, iPad, and Android devices.

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FEMA: Homeland Security's Disaster Alert App

FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is an agency in the US that's part of the Department of Homeland Security. The mobile app from FEMA lets you get real-time alerts concerning all sorts of disasters.

When you add a new location, you have full control (really) over what to monitor: flooding, coastal and lakeshore flooding, severe weather (thunderstorms and tornadoes), tropical weather (hurricanes and typhoons), winter weather (snow, ice, freezing rain), avalanches, fire, marine weather, public hazard alerts, and more. These are hyperspecific with subsections for you to choose from; e.g., pick just lake wind advisory alerts instead of general high wind warnings.

Unlike most similar apps, FEMA also delivers emergency alerts regarding evacuations, civil danger, child abductions, hazardous materials, nuclear power plants, radiological hazards, 911 phone outages, and more.

Numerous 'planning ahead' guides are also included so that you're informed about what to do to protect your family from a disaster, how evacuations work, items to include in a pet emergency kit, etc.

Android and iOS tablets and phones can install this app.

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AccuWeather: Alerts for All Weather Types

Most disasters are weather-related, and AccuWeather is one of the best all-purpose weather apps. It provides on-time emergency alerts for all sorts of events, making it a great hurricane tracker app and a general weather app for showing when it will snow, rain, flood, etc.

You can monitor multiple locations at once, see the weather as it stands right now, and view the hourly forecast or extended forecast for the week and month. The radar map is extremely detailed and supports lots of overlays, like for the past or future radar, temperature, dangerous thunderstorms, tropical storms, snowfall, and more.

Staying updated on the most recent weather news is also possible with the AccuWeather app.

Android and iOS users can install the app. It also works on iPad and smartwatches.

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First Aid: Disaster Readiness App From American Red Cross

The Red Cross First Aid app is one of the best emergency apps for clear health-related instructions. It’s important for situations where you can’t necessarily access a hospital right away, although it includes a list of nearby hospitals if you need one. You can use the app to learn how to control bleeding, treat a broken bone, perform CPR, etc.

The app is primarily centered around learning what to do should one of those things occur, or something else like allergies, asthma attacks, burns, choking, distress, heat strokes, and more.

Quizzes are available to test your knowledge of these things so you can prepare ahead of time. The hospital list includes easy access to directions, the facility's phone number, and its website.

First Aid runs on Android and iOS phones and tablets.

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Zello: Walkie-Talkie App for Quick Calls and Group Coordination

Zello is a walkie-talkie app that makes staying in contact with individuals and groups of people really easy. It’s also helpful for facilitating communication between kids and the elderly who might know how to use a phone properly.

You can create private channels so that only certain people can access the messages, but there are also public channels anybody can join. When you're actively connected to a Zello channel, you can lock your phone and still hear it when someone talks, making this especially helpful during emergencies.

iPhone and Android mobile devices can run Zello.

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GasBuddy: Gas Station Locator

Shopping for the cheapest gas station isn’t something you have time to do during an emergency, but you still need gas. GasBuddy is the easiest way to find the cheapest gas pumps around where you are or where you’re headed, and you can even save money when you fill up.

You can sort the gas stations by not only price and distance, and filter by fuel type, but also locate stations that have amenities like a car wash, propane, air pump, service station, restroom, 24/7 access, ATM, payphone, restaurant, and more.

There's an Android app and one for iPad and iPhone.

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