Text Message Alerts and app alerts

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Several have asked this question and I wanted to clarify the answer:

Question: "Do we still need to subscribe to Text Message Alerts if your free app is able to send out alerts?"

Answer: Text Message Alerts remain our most reliable option for alerts as they do not require internet access in order to work. Our free app InstantWeather always requires internet access to work and therefore, if your internet gets interrupted for whatever reason, you could potentially miss important notifications for tornado activity, etc.

During a violent tornado, the power often goes out which means Wi-Fi will go down for most. What happens then is, everyone tries to use cell tower data at the same time and unfortunately, it gets so bogged down that almost zero alerts come through from any option. The Ottawa tornadoes from 2018 are a perfect example of this as 10's of thousands complained that they did not receive any Tornado Warnings from any system, even though they were issued in advance. This was likely due to so many using the cell tower at the same time that most did not have the require LTE signal strength to receive automated government alerts. The only method that had a hope of getting through during those clogged times was a basic Text Message Alert (SMS) as it still works on weaker signal strengths such as Edge, 2G, and 3G.

I hope that makes sense and if you have any further questions regarding this, feel free to send us a private message or an email at help@InstantWeather.ca A huge thank you to those who continue to subscribe to our Text Message Alerts and to those who use our free app InstantWeather! Ultimately, the combination of the two is the best option as no single system is perfect. We also recommend downloading Environment Canada's mobile app WeatherCAN for alerts.

You can never be too redundant when it comes to critical alerts during tornado season. <3

- Adam

App alert delays

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Noticing some app alert delays when sending to large regions like all of a province at the same time for example or larger cities where we have thousands of notifications to send now.

Our Text Message Alerts subscriptions seem unaffected by this and are arriving earlier than any other option so this seems to be something between us and our service provider for push notifications.

Looking into it and we may be migrating our notifications to a different provider that promises faster speeds but costs more. Working to get this addressed ASAP!

We can't be "Instant" weather if we're not sending alerts instantly. :)

- Adam

Remove ads, subscriptions and TMA

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A few Text Message Alerts subscribers have asked if the removing of ads on the app is included with their text subscription.

To clarify, our Text Message Alerts are a unique product from the app. TMA is also significantly more expensive for us to operate.

We’ve been considering raising the price of TMA (we haven’t raised the price since it began in 2015) but we’re going to try to keep it the same price until we start losing money on it.

Our app requires an in-app purchase to remove ads and based on the rules from the app stores, we’re not allowed to have users pay for it somewhere else (like our website).

So, removing ads will be $5.99/year or $0.99/month and only available as an in-app purchase. This will also improve radar from 5 to 12 intervals.

Our Text Message Alerts remain the most reliable method for alerts in a dangerous situation like a significant tornado when it’s likely that the internet will stop working because towers are overwhelmed, wifi goes down because power is out, and if anything will make it through, it’ll only be basic SMS text messages. Our app requires internet access so most of the time it’ll work great. However, during the most dangerous times when getting information is extremely important, text is easily the best option.

I hope this makes sense and thank you for your questions! And thank you to all those who subscribe to our Text Message Alerts. Without you, this app would be another year away or more as we’ve used the slim profits from TMA to build the app faster! ❤

Adam

(posted to the Facebook group on November 23 2019)

Social media and Text Message Alerts

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Hi! I'd like to clear up a few things:

1. When we launch the app, no content will be removed from our Facebook or other social feeds. Our goal is and has always been to raise awareness about tornadoes and severe weather. Removing content from our social platforms does not support this goal and therefore, we will continue to provide as much free value as possible to the entire community, whether they download our app or not.

2. The app will be free! The subscriptions are entirely optional for those who wish to remove ads, improve the radar from 5 to 12 intervals, and want to help support the app and our team. $5.99/year will provide us with more revenue than ads. $0.99/month will double that and be a more predictable monthly revenue stream for us. A huge thank you to those who wish to go either route!

3. For those who subscribe to our Text Message Alerts, firstly, thank you so much! Secondly, some have asked if removing ads is included in their $3.39/month subscription. At this point in time, that is not possible. The app is a unique product and removing the ads + improving radar requires a separate charge through the app stores in order to work properly. It's also important that we charge a separate fee so that we can recoup the costs associated with expensive radar data, server costs, development, improvements, email support, etc. We would, however, like to eventually add the option to subscribe to Text Message Alerts inside of the app but there are many features and improvements that take priority over that at this time.

I hope all of this makes sense and thank you so much for joining us on this incredible journey! 💙

Adam

(posted to the Facebook group on Oct 29 2019)