Earthquake alert app denies VIP priority after displaying an acceleration channel
TL;DR
The institute denied paid priority alerts, conflicting with a statement reported in 2024.
Chengdu's Institute of Care-life denied on July 15 that its Earthquake Warning app gives paying users priority, although an institute representative told The Paper in 2024 that servers would send alerts to paying users first. The institute said the public-safety AI disaster-warning app used misleading labels such as "VIP acceleration channel"; it apologized and removed them.
The notice said core earthquake alerts and disaster warnings are free and sent to all users at the same time, with no throttling or delay for free accounts. Membership revenue funds cloud-server expansion; paid features are limited to earthquake reports, intensity maps, personalization and ad removal.
Jiemian reported that the app had advertised an "alert acceleration channel" for VIP users and listed reminders under silent, low-battery and call conditions as member benefits. The institute said limited server capacity once caused performance gaps in those conditions, but an expansion completed at the end of 2024 brought free and paid users to the same standard.
The institute said splash ads appeared only when users opened the app outside an earthquake alert and that all splash ads were removed on July 3. The complaints first included reports from iPhone users; media tests after the removal still recorded frequent membership pop-ups.
The institute's network covers 31 provincial-level regions, 2.2 million square kilometers and about 660 million people.
via Jiemian / IT Home / The Beijing News
The notice said core earthquake alerts and disaster warnings are free and sent to all users at the same time, with no throttling or delay for free accounts. Membership revenue funds cloud-server expansion; paid features are limited to earthquake reports, intensity maps, personalization and ad removal.
Jiemian reported that the app had advertised an "alert acceleration channel" for VIP users and listed reminders under silent, low-battery and call conditions as member benefits. The institute said limited server capacity once caused performance gaps in those conditions, but an expansion completed at the end of 2024 brought free and paid users to the same standard.
The institute said splash ads appeared only when users opened the app outside an earthquake alert and that all splash ads were removed on July 3. The complaints first included reports from iPhone users; media tests after the removal still recorded frequent membership pop-ups.
The institute's network covers 31 provincial-level regions, 2.2 million square kilometers and about 660 million people.
via Jiemian / IT Home / The Beijing News
