How do community alerts work?

Community Alerts

Alerts let you notify your community when an item or pet goes missing. When you create an alert, everyone subscribed to the relevant topic in your community is notified.

Finding Alerts

You can access community alerts in several ways:

• Community page: Each community's detail page shows recent alerts and a "View All Alerts" link
• Create Alert button: Community members see a "Create Alert" button directly on the community page
• Your Communities: The community discovery page highlights communities you've already joined, making it easy to navigate to alerts

Creating an Alert

The alert creation wizard guides you through a few simple steps:

1. Select your item: Choose the registered item or pet you want to broadcast
2. Describe what happened: Select from predefined options (chips) to describe the circumstances — for example, "Fell from pocket" or "Escaped from home"
3. Add traits and features: For pets, you can add behavioural traits ("Friendly to strangers", "Shy") and distinguishing features ("Has ID tag", "Unusual marking")
4. Set location: Mark the last known location on a map

Structured Content

Instead of free-text descriptions, alerts use chip selectors — predefined options you can tap to describe circumstances, traits, and features. This approach:

• Makes alerts faster to create
• Keeps content consistent and searchable
• Works in multiple languages automatically
• Prevents inappropriate content

Alert Status

• Active: Your alert is live and visible to community members
• Resolved: You marked the item as found
• Expired: The alert reached its expiry date (default: 7 days)
• Hidden: The alert was temporarily hidden for review after community reports

Tips

• Select the most relevant circumstance chips — you can choose up to 3
• For pets, add traits that help finders identify and approach them safely
• Set an accurate last-seen location to help nearby members