Wireless Emergency Alerts app

proph

Hi. I was wondering if anyone know if we could disable or control the wireless emergency alerts app. This app has permission to view nearby devices and I don't really want that information to be used or seen by anyone.

Can this be turned off? Thank you.

unwat

proph
No. Its access cannot be blocked that way.

I actually checked the AOSP code quickly. Just did a Ctrl + F search. Turns out they require this access only to see if you're wearing bluetooth headphones. I didn't read more of the code to see why, but I'm guessing it's so an alert doesn't blow your eardrums out.

As far as I can tell, the app doesn't have any access to change settings, so you can just turn off Bluetooth when it's not in use and the app can't see anything.

proph

unwat

Thanks unwat. I'm just hoping to avoid having nearby devices sent back somewhere and this being used to track my location without location services.

Thank you!

adeyo

I also would like to be able to disable this app or turn off permissions but it's greyed out. I don't care that is the govt, the reason I have graphene in the first place is to control who/what apps have access to my phone. I keep hearing that it can be disabled but not on my pixel 6 pro with the latest update anyway. Is there no way to disable or remove this app? Suprised now people haven't posted about this. Please advise. Thank you

865be553dc4f5b2b

adeyo I second that concern. From my reading on the subject it would appear that whether it's possible to disable wireless emergency alerts in the settings is dependent on your carrier provisioning the device. I think Graphene OS should have an option to override carrier's wishes and give us the control back so it would be possible to disable those alerts regardless of what the carrier or anyone else but the user wants.

fid02

865be553dc4f5b2b

Settings > Safety & emergency > Wireless emergency alerts > Allow alerts: Off

865be553dc4f5b2b

fid02 Sorry, my bad, you're correct. I looked in the wrong place.

jonf3n

I'm happy to learn that we can disable the alerts, but still, why can't the user revoke questionable permissions or remove the app completely? Isn't this what a user-controlled device all about?

ohwow

I just discovered that there is something weird with Pixel9 as opposed to Pixel5 (the same latest stable build).

On Pixel5 I was successfully able to switch off the alerts and they show as disabled under the Alerts App "notifications" as well.
On Pixel9 they show as disabled under Safety & Emergency > Wireless emergency alerts... BUT when I look under the app itself, they are all active (and grayed out).

Is it a bug on Pixel9 ? (I also found that inverting colors disables the dark theme until restart and that changing the grid "loses" default icons from desktop etc)

I noticed that there are a lot of people complaining about the Wireless emergency alerts app.

Why can't graphene users decide for themselves? Is it a requirement(threat) from top down, that in order for graphene to exist, devs have to comply with this gov policy?

other8026

ohwow grayed out

I just checked on my phone and I can disable all alerts. If you already disabled the top option "allow alerts" then the rest should be off and disabled. If not that, maybe try restarting your phone and try again?

ohwow Why can't graphene users decide for themselves? Is it a requirement(threat) from top down, that in order for graphene to exist, devs have to comply with this gov policy?

Alerts can be disabled, so GrapheneOS users can decide for themselves.

ohwow

other8026

Yes I restarted the Pixel9 and toggled the alerts notifications on and off under the Safety & Emergency section, no change under the app itself.

Could it be a carrier issue? As I did get a notification that these changes were pushed when I switched the device on with SIM installed for the first time.

I prepared GrapheneOS before inserting the SIM for the first time and I switched the emergency alerts off initially.
Then after starting the phone with SIM installed, I got notification that these settings were automatically changed (turned on).
After this I noticed the previously mentioned situation.

I can confirm that I used the same SIM card in my Pixel5 and tested it again without issue. So there definitely is something different with Pixel9 in this regard. Either it is a bug or I can't actually disable the WEA notifications.

I cannot be sure that they are actually disabled, when the app displays that the notifications are enabled and Safety & Emergency > Wireless emergency alerts is showing that they are disabled.

I am pretty sure that it should work the same as on my Pixel5, no?

As for the complaint(s). I believe I may have been unclear. It is not just about being able to switch off the WEA notifications, I would expect to be able to disable all the access' for this app as any other app in GrapheneOS. This is not like any other system app in my humble opinion.

All the answers on this forum seem to side-step the issue by downplaying it and sending everyone to github to check the code. Yes there is the option to disable a bit more than on a vanilla android for example, but the app is still there with all the forced access. Yes it may not be accurately displayed and it may not be a backdoor etc.
But why must it be there at all then? Government regulations? Google enforcement? Other?

GrapheneOS is all about privacy and user control as well as being open source. The fact that this application access' cannot be fully disabled by the user is the complaint and in fact completely opposite to the idea of user control.