Crowdsourced navigation and traffic tracking app Waze will get AMBER Alerts in the United States. The alerts inform users to be on the look out for missing and abducted children. Alerts will be restricted to local areas, and will appear in the app only when your vehicle has been stationary for at least ten seconds.
Here’s how it works:
- We will scan the U.S. for AMBER alerts every 10 minutes.
- If there is a live AMBER alert, we will display it to Wazers in the relevant geographic area.
- Alerts will only be displayed when Wazers’ vehicles have been completely stopped for 10 seconds and will only appear once per week per individual alert.
- Alerts will disappear when Wazers tap the map or once the vehicle starts moving again.
The AMBER alerts will contain as much information about the missing child as possible. Alerts may contain a photo of the child as well as the model, make and license plate of a missing vehicle the child may be traveling in. Users clicking “More Information” will see a web browser open where they can access more information on the missing child.
At this point in time, AMBER alerts have helped to safely recover 728 children.
The new feature is expected to rollout soon as a U.S.-only update. Waze can be downloaded FREE in the iOS App Store. [DIRECT LINK]
