Anber alerts are an essential tool in helping locate abducted children. They are authorized by law enforcement and broadcast via TVS, text messages, and other means. Now Instagram will also push amber alerts into users’ feed with the qualities rolling out in the US today and set to be available in 25 total countries in the next couple of weeks. It shows how apps like Instagram have become communication infrastructure in the modern world.
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Adding amber alerts to Instagram makes sense for a few reasons. First, younger generations may well ignore text messages but scroll through Instagram with some regularity. Second, while text alerts require people to click a link to get more information and photos of the missing child Insta alerts will include this info directly. It does not seem the alerts will be missed or issued as notifications they will just appear in users’ regular feeds. Facebook previously added amber alerts into the news feed all the way back in 2015. But if you have never seen one before it shows how rare and focused these alerts are.
