“This wasn’t a thoughtfully designed menu.”

(It’s the last day of Halloween Week on Unsung, where we’re sharing scary, spooky, and creepy stories.) On the morning of January 13, 2018, residents and tourists in Hawaii saw a frightening message on their phone screens: In addition to being sent to 1.4 million people, a version of the alert also interrupted local TV and radio programs. Quickly, the officials realized that something went wrong and seeked to undo what ended up being a false alarm. The siren warning system that would normally follow wasn’t activated, and various channels were used to inform people to ignore the alarming message – however, a second phone alert to follow the original one wasn’t sent out for 38 more minutes: In the meantime, many Hawaii residents sought shelter, flooded 911 lines, and called their families to say good-bye. What was the reason for the mistake? Industry veteran Jared Spool wrote a post explaining it in detail. We are not 100% sure, but the interface to deploy alerts likely looked like…

Commenting on Bubbles has been removed. Why? If you want to talk about this post, write to the author, use the comments on their blog if it has them, or reply with a "RE:" post on your own blog. Suggestions? feedback@bubbles.town