Following the 11-day escalation with Gaza during which over 4,300 rockets were fired into Israel, the Home Front Command has made several user-friendly updates to their mobile application.
The first special update is the addition of a red-alert setting for deaf and hard of hearing people. When a rocket is fired into Israel, the Home Front Command app will sound an alarm, allowing people to reach their shelters in time. Up until now, however, there was no option for the deaf and hard of hearing to know when a rocket siren sounded.
The new setting will send a written alert to the user and is followed by a 10-second vibration instead of an alarm.
A similar setting has been added for people living in the Gaza border communities who will now be able to choose to receive a location-specific alert to their phones in case of a siren, rather than receive an alarm each time there is a red alert in a nearby area that does not affect them.
This is important as in the case of the most recent escalation, sometimes hundreds of rockets were launched daily toward the Gaza border communities.
Besides issuing alerts in the event of rocket sirens, the Home Front Command application also provides warnings for other emergencies, including fires, earthquakes and tsunamis. The app also provides instructions for what to do in these events, allowing people to stay as calm and as prepared as they can be.
The Home Front Command application is available to download at the Apple and Google app stores.