Twitter added a couple new features to its emergency alert system on Thursday, and also announced the addition of a couple new countries that now host organizations participating in the service.
Twitter's iOS and Android users can now subscribe to emergency alerts straight from the participating organization's Twitter profile. A new bell-shaped icon appears alongside the follow button located on an organizations' profile page. Clicking on the button subscribes the user to alerts from that organization, and also follows that organization if the user wasn't already doing so.
[seealso slug="japan-loves-twitter"]
Alerts will now also appear as a separate bar of text along the bottom of the Twitter stream. The bar, which is a bright orange color, will appear for iOS users scrolling through tweets when the alert is sent. The feature is not currently available for Android.
Twitter first unveiled its alert system in the United States in September, and a slightly different version of the system was available in Japan in September 2012.
The company also confirmed Thursday that organizations from two new countries, Australia and Brazil, have also joined the service.
When the alert system was originally announced in September, more than 70 organizations worldwide joined up. That number is now more than 120 organizations across seven countries, including 50 organizations in the United States alone.
The addition of participating organizations in Brazil could be a good step toward increasing Twitter's participation in the upcoming World Cup set for summer of 2014. Brazil should see a major increase in out-of-state visitors traveling to see the games, and Twitter's alert system could be of help in any emergency situation.
[wp_scm_comment]