Ward is an app for emergency situations and preparedness.
It all started when my friend Melcher -who is an ex-military of Dutch army- came up with the idea of an app that have all the shelters, bunkers and safe places for the time of war and emergency.
He shared the idea with me, and some weeks later we decided to build it.
100,000+ locations
We started with the Netherlands for data gathering and entering. And after having ~2500 locations in the database, we launched the app.
Later we got to the top #1 Navigation app, and top 5 apps in the most downloaded apps in the whole NL App Store for many days.
After almost a year and half, now it has 100,000+ locations covering fallout shelters, bunkers, tornado and storm shelters worldwide. The site is at wardalerts.com.
Android App
We’ve been asked by hundreds of people on our social media and support email about an Android app.
I didn’t have experience developing for Android. But with AI coding getting better every day, I thought it’s possible. So, I started and surprisingly only two weeks later we had a full functioning Android app.
As we expected, from the moment we published it, thousands of people installed it. And the best thing for me it was to get way more confidence with Android app building.
Ward is free on iOS and Android.
Right now I’m working on a new Android release that brings over the alerts experience — world emergency alerts, the map, and watching cities you care about — plus catching up on the newer preparedness features iOS already has.
Library
We shipped a Library tab with two pieces people kept asking for.
Emergency kit is a full checklist for preparedness — what you need at home, for the household, with expiration tracking so a green/red status tells you if supplies are still good (including water storage).
Hazard Guides are documents and materials from international and local agencies, organized per emergency type. Useful when you want to understand a hazard before it shows up on the map.
Version 3.0 — World Emergency Alerts
In July 2026 we released a major iOS update: Ward 3.0.
Finding shelters was never enough on its own. People also need to know when something is happening — severe weather, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, wildfires, hurricanes, public safety incidents — wherever they are, and wherever family lives.
So now Ward notifies you for emergency alerts in real time. There’s a world emergency alerts map with alerts issued by official organizations, and a dashboard where you see alerts, bunkers, and shelters in your area.
Version 3.1 — Alerts for any city
In early August 2026 we shipped 3.1. The big ask after 3.0 was simple: don’t only watch here — watch the places that matter.
You can now choose to receive instant emergency alert notifications for any city worldwide. Earthquakes, local emergencies, the alerts that used to only land if you happened to be standing in that city — now they can follow the cities you pin.
This is a new era for Ward. And we’re just getting started.
Next Steps
The immediate focus is shipping that Android alerts release and keeping the iOS alerts experience sharp. In parallel I am working on a proactive system to be integrated with the app, which I will write about in the future. More to come soon.
I wrote a short note on the 3.1 city alerts work in Ward 3.1: alerts for any city you care about.