Universal App: Identifying High Priority Public Warnings

This technical guide outlines the method used by the Global Disaster Preparedness Center’s Universal App Program to identify “high priority public warnings” within Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) alerts.

These are messages requiring immediate or near-immediate public action due to significant or imminent threats. The document details the filtering criteria used to automate selection of such alerts in RC/RC mobile apps, including specific handling rules for countries like the U.S. and Canada. It is intended to support RC/RC National Societies working with official alerting authorities.

"High priority" refers to situations in which people need to act immediately or within the next hour, in response to an extraordinary or significant threat, that is already observed or is likely to occur. Whether any particular alert should be treated as a high priority public warning is primarily a matter of policy. However, this Guide deals only with the technical matter of how an alert in CAP format is identified as a high priority public warning for the purpose of dissemination using the Universal Hazard app.