The social networking website Twitter is a simple yet effective way to get the word out about what is on your mind, a photo that you have recently taken, or the announcement of a product. With so many people currently active on Twitter, it is also a great way to send out notifications and alerts from various information-based systems and services. With this in mind, Twitter has recently added more countries to its list of areas where the social networking site actively dispenses alerts.

When Twitter users enroll in the Twitter Alerts system, the enrolled users will receive important alerts on their phones from various organizations in an emergency, natural disaster, or any other event when other communication systems are not accessible to the user. The countries actively involved with the Twitter Alerts system are: United States, Japan, Korea, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.

On December 19th, 2013, Twitter announced that two more countries have been added to the social networking site’s alert system: Australia and Brazil.

With Australia added, users in the Great South Land will be able to receive alerts from various Australian-based services, such as: the City of Sydney, the Australian Red Cross, the Department of Health, and fire and police departments from many other areas within their state. The New South Wales Royal Fire Service recently tweeted an announcement of their commitment with Twitter Alerts.

Twitter Alerts now available in Australia, giving #nswrfs another tool to deliver you warnings during #nswfires @TwitterAU

— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) December 17, 2013

In Brazil, an important service that Twitter users will definitely benefit from are alerts from Centro de Operações da Prefeitura do Rio de Janeiro (COR).

Along with Twitter adding both Australia and Brazil to its alert system, new features have been added to the Twitter Alerts service as well. On a user’s iOS or Android device, the user can visit a participating organization’s Twitter profile and subscribe to its alerts as published notifications by clicking on the bell icon. Another feature that has been added for iOS users is that users will now receive notifications at the bottom of the screen from organizations that have just published an alert from their Twitter accounts.

To see a comprehensive list of services participating in Twitter Alerts organized by country, be sure to visit Twitter’s Participating Organizations page.

Image via Twitter Alerts (FEMA)