Review Insights · App Store
Emergency: Severe Weather App
American Red Cross · 6,220 ratings · ★ 4.8
4.8
★★★★★
6,220 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 36 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"alerts"
18 negative reviews mention this · 50% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Notifications Not Working. This app has always been great for my family, as we are in a tornado prone area with no sirens. However, we’ve noticed in the last couple of months we no longer receive any alerts for severe weather. All settings remain turned on and unchan…" - No Notifications Anymore 2
2
"tornado"
17 negative reviews mention this · 47% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Notifications Not Working. This app has always been great for my family, as we are in a tornado prone area with no sirens. However, we’ve noticed in the last couple of months we no longer receive any alerts for severe weather. All settings remain turned on and unchan…" - No Notifications Anymore 2
3
"alert"
12 negative reviews mention this · 33% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Notifications Not Working. This app has always been great for my family, as we are in a tornado prone area with no sirens. However, we’ve noticed in the last couple of months we no longer receive any alerts for severe weather. All settings remain turned on and unchan…" - No Notifications Anymore 2
4
"warning"
11 negative reviews mention this · 31% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Warnings. Shouldn’t a warning sound regardless of phone on dnd or sleep schedule? It did not. Relied on noaa radio for my warnings last night." - mbwc ky
5
"weather"
9 negative reviews mention this · 25% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Notifications Not Working. This app has always been great for my family, as we are in a tornado prone area with no sirens. However, we’ve noticed in the last couple of months we no longer receive any alerts for severe weather. All settings remain turned on and unchan…" - No Notifications Anymore 2
6
"location"
9 negative reviews mention this · 25% of all complaints
★★★★★ "never receive push notifications. I’ve had this app on multiple phones, multiple iOS, location is set to always on and all notifications are enabled. Never receive any notifications from it even when a tornado touched down half a mile from my location and I was under tornad…" - mmb469953116752
7
"warnings"
8 negative reviews mention this · 22% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Warnings. Shouldn’t a warning sound regardless of phone on dnd or sleep schedule? It did not. Relied on noaa radio for my warnings last night." - mbwc ky
8
"tornado warning"
8 negative reviews mention this · 22% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Failed during tornado warning. I live in Iowa, which is certainly in tornado country and two days ago we were under an active tornado warning, and the Red Cross Emergency app sat quiet, and the warning never was reported by the app. That’s a serious failure that needs to…" - @luxespokenhere
9
"work"
7 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Notifications Not Working. This app has always been great for my family, as we are in a tornado prone area with no sirens. However, we’ve noticed in the last couple of months we no longer receive any alerts for severe weather. All settings remain turned on and unchan…" - No Notifications Anymore 2
10
"severe"
6 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Notifications Not Working. This app has always been great for my family, as we are in a tornado prone area with no sirens. However, we’ve noticed in the last couple of months we no longer receive any alerts for severe weather. All settings remain turned on and unchan…" - No Notifications Anymore 2
11
"live"
6 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Failed during tornado warning. I live in Iowa, which is certainly in tornado country and two days ago we were under an active tornado warning, and the Red Cross Emergency app sat quiet, and the warning never was reported by the app. That’s a serious failure that needs to…" - @luxespokenhere
12
"area"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Notifications Not Working. This app has always been great for my family, as we are in a tornado prone area with no sirens. However, we’ve noticed in the last couple of months we no longer receive any alerts for severe weather. All settings remain turned on and unchan…" - No Notifications Anymore 2
📋 All 36 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Notifications Not Working
This app has always been great for my family, as we are in a tornado prone area with no sirens. However, we’ve noticed in the last couple of months we no longer receive any alerts for severe weather. All settings remain turned on and unchanged, it appears to be some sort of bug within the app. All 5 members of my family are having this issue.
Failed during tornado warning
I live in Iowa, which is certainly in tornado country and two days ago we were under an active tornado warning, and the Red Cross Emergency app sat quiet, and the warning never was reported by the app. That’s a serious failure that needs to be investigated. I’m giving a one star review and leaving it because I need to get somebody’s attention so they can investigate why this very important app failed so miserably at the very beginning of tornado season.
never receive push notifications
I’ve had this app on multiple phones, multiple iOS, location is set to always on and all notifications are enabled. Never receive any notifications from it even when a tornado touched down half a mile from my location and I was under tornado warning for an hour
irresponsible to provide a safety app doesn’t work
I finally had to delete the app due to ridiculous alerts that were repetitive, OR, you don’t get ANY at all. A single alert, for your radius, by EVENT, should be all that’s needed, and then choose additional if you want more detailed ones.
Recently - adding to review, now you get NO alerts notices - no banners, nothing…but they show in app IF you manually open it and scroll to the location.
I’ve given feedback already, sometime ago, but so far not resolved: if you opt in for text alerts, the text needs to include the region name (it doesn’t say at all). Many people monitor more than one location. You have no idea for where it is alerting. So this is clearly another in long list of BROKEN apps that need updating, or pulling (the later in this case).
Recently - adding to review, now you get NO alerts notices - no banners, nothing…but they show in app IF you manually open it and scroll to the location.
I’ve given feedback already, sometime ago, but so far not resolved: if you opt in for text alerts, the text needs to include the region name (it doesn’t say at all). Many people monitor more than one location. You have no idea for where it is alerting. So this is clearly another in long list of BROKEN apps that need updating, or pulling (the later in this case).
Rarely Works
I have used this app for years and be advised that if a real emergency, you need a different app. This app works sporadically and not reliable during a real emergency.
No critcal Alerts/warnings
I have used this every year for a while. We just had tornado watches and warnings go off and I got ZERO notifications. I have it set up to break through any volume settings for all tornado watches/warnings and severe thunderstorm warnings. Didn't even get a banner much less a siren. Thankfully the emergency alerts on my iPhone are still activated. The alerts are there when I open my app. But no notice.
Doesn’t work for tornado warning
I downloaded the app because I knew there was severe weather on the way tonight. We entered into a tornado warning and have taken cover but this app still shows tornado watch
Most recent update
I used to love this app and heavily relied on it before the latest update. With the newest update, you are not able to set the radius and choose how far out to get warnings. We live in a heavily tornado affected area, and now with the way, the app is set up,we don’t receive warnings in enough time. By the time the alert goes off, it’s already too late. At this point, the app is useless to me, because if I don’t have enough warning to get my children to myself to safety, there’s no point in using the app at all. Unless they bring back the tool that allows you to set your own radius I wouldn’t bother with this app. If you rely on this app, you’re putting the safety of your family and yourself at risk.
Settings: Too loud !!!
Cannot change settings for notifications: ringtones, loudness, repetitions, visibility
Signing in
I tried to sign in to use this app. However, I was unable to because I didn’t have a password for the Red Cross. So I’m not getting to use this app. I guess if it was supposed to be that important to the safety of the public then they wouldn’t ask you for a password. They would just let you sign in and create a new one.
Too many useless alerts
Perhaps it’s the weather service being criticized for non alerts, but too many “sky is falling” is just as bad.
No sound alerts
Used to have tornado app from Red Cross. Tornado warnings would alert with siren. I can’t get anything from this.
Please fix
This app has failed to work properly for me for quite a while now. I have changed settings in order to get alerts over certain earthquakes. My other earthquake app alerts me of earthquakes near me. This app sends me no alert. I have checked my settings multiple times to make sure it’s not on my end.
No earthquake alert
There was just a large earthquake not far from us and the app shows nothing!!
Not trustworthy at all
I would not trust this app at all at this point. All the news stations are giving a tsunami advisory for our coast including the NWS which they claim as a source.
I have all the alerts turned on and nothing has generated an alert. However, more concerning, is that when I check our central coast location the app says there are "no alerts here".
This isn't the first time I heard the alerts everywhere else but this app didn't generate any.
While I will likely leave it installed as another source for alerts, I would not trust it at all to provide accurate and timely alerts and wouldn't recommend it.
I have all the alerts turned on and nothing has generated an alert. However, more concerning, is that when I check our central coast location the app says there are "no alerts here".
This isn't the first time I heard the alerts everywhere else but this app didn't generate any.
While I will likely leave it installed as another source for alerts, I would not trust it at all to provide accurate and timely alerts and wouldn't recommend it.
Closes as soon as it’s opened.
App has been horrible lately. First, when I would get a notification I’d try to open the notification but it would immediately close. Then when I’d open the app none of my saved locations would show an active alert. Even though one of my locations had tornado warnings. Now I can’t even open the app at all. It immediately closes. I used to love it. I’d check it often to check for alerts near loved ones.
Total Garbage
Severe Storms and not a peep
Do NOT recommend
Does not work. Severe thunderstorms and tornados coming through not and not a single alert from this app 10 minutes since sirens went off. Garbage.
Alerts settings
I used to love this app. Had to reinstall it due getting a new phone. Now the app doesn't have the mile radius option to customize your alerts. I used that feature for tornado warnings. Very helpful when sleeping. Buts the feature gone.
Doesn’t work
It can’t find my location, can’t do anything. App is trash!
Delayed Alerts
All the weather alerts I get from this app are always delayed and after the weather threat is gone. I have tried this app a couple times over the last year and this issue still has not been fixed. I think this app has a lot of potential if the alerts came through right away.
Location issues
My location changes to Manhattan, NY within hours or setting up my home location. I've tried redoing this 4 times and it continuously changes automatically. Completely useless app that cannot give me actual alerts for my home city.
Location tracking poor
I’m not sure if this is a glitch, if it’s related to reduced NOAA funding, or what - but I have location tracking set to “always.” Today we were in Cadiz, KY. Now we’re in Smyrna, TN. My phone is getting constant tornado warning sirens from the app for Cadiz, but it’s marked for Smyrna. It’s very unsettling. Praying for everyone in SW KY, but this is the first time I’ve used this app with live tracking (given this generational weather), and it’s not serving us well. :(
Not good anymore
This used to be my favorite weather app for alerts. Not anymore. Alerts didn’t go off for tornado warned areas today. Can no longer select distance for alerts from specific areas.
not good at all
i had this app set up for my home and my grandparents. i got a tornado warning for my grandparents and went to watch the storm radar on this app, but it didn’t have any alerts for their area. they would have been in serious danger if they didn’t have any other app.
DW
HORRIBLE APP!! Completely covered by Tornado Warnings & Severe Thunderstorm Warnings, NOT ONE notification!!! The “old Tornado” app actually worked. This one is useless!!
No longer useful or reliable
They removed radius. I live near county border where storms and tornadoes come from next county over. Now if I get any warning at all, it’s too late. Also they removed contacts so I cant warn my elderly parent who lives two states away when they have bad weather alerts.
Slow to issue warnings
Not good for tornado warnings. Issues them 20-30 minutes after the fact.
Was 5 stars back when it worked.
It’s a very dangerous situation to provide an app that people depend on and then find it no longer works because they haven’t updated it. Older versions of the app should still work, especially when public safety is involved. And no I can’t update my app because of the age of my phone. Not making the apps backwards compatible is not only inconvenient but in this case dangerous.
Doesn’t work properly
The original tornado app worked perfectly and could be trailered to my specific location.Last year I wasn’t getting the alerts now apparently it’s updated but I can’t even specify location radius. I mean I can track my live location but I can’t track how many miles from that location i want a tornado alert. If a is tornado coming I want to know 10 miles before it’s at my house, not when it’s on top of me.I can’t rely on tornado sirens because I can’t really hear him and I am also on the county line so if the tornado is on the Southside of me I won’t get tornado sirens because that’s a different county. and if it’s relying solely on when the tornado warning is issued through my town, that does not give me enough time to seek safety.
Warnings
Shouldn’t a warning sound regardless of phone on dnd or sleep schedule? It did not.
Relied on noaa radio for my warnings last night.
Relied on noaa radio for my warnings last night.
Behind in alerts
All weather channels said no more precipitation coming Cold cold but you need to update. No snow no sleet no freezing rain. Just very cold
Unable to add Location
Critical alert is pointless if the app won’t let me add my location. Type in the ZIP Code or city always results in error message to check my network. App is able to connect and retrieve the city name, but it just won’t add it.
Alert issue
When you’ve turned on “monitor live location” the app needs to not provide alerts to other locations you have set.
Loud out of area
I get loud tornado WARNING alerts for locations too far away. Those could be WATCH and the alert could be some beeping.
I might remove the app!
I might remove the app!
Missed tornado warning
This totally missed a tornado warning, only listed the area as watch, but the weather channel and apple weather thankfully caught the warning. Hard for me to trust this one now
Sentiment summary
97%
Positive (4-5★)
1%
Neutral (3★)
1%
Negative (1-2★)