AT&T is bringing a new emergency alert system to the iPhone 5, 4, and 4S, according to an article posted Friday by AppleInsider.com.

The wireless carrier began initiating a new software update on Friday to comply with new mandates from within the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The update will make the FCC’s Wireless Emergency Alerts available on the iPhone 5 and 4S and will deliver government updates directly to users’ phones. Compatibility with the original iPhone 4, meanwhile, has yet to be confirmed, though users in some areas indicated that the update applied to their earlier iPhone model as well.

The Wireless Emergency Alerts, created in a collaboration between the FCC, other federal agencies, and the wireless industry association that is CTIA, first made their way to mobile devices in early 2012, but AT&T’s iPhones have thus far not supported the alerts. With this new update, late-model iPhone users will be able to receive government-issued safety messages and emergency notifications as texts to their message inbox. However, while the messages will appear as texts, they use different technology than user-to-user messages, and will therefore not figure in to data limits or represent any additional charges on users’ mobile phone bills.

The messages delivered via the Wireless Emergency Alert system fall into three separate categories. The first, Presidential Alerts, will notify mobile users to special alert announcements or emergency bulletins put forth by the White House. The second, classified as “Imminent Threat Alerts,” include “man-made or natural disasters” and other circumstances in which “an imminent threat to live or property” exists. Finally, the third category, AMBER Alters, will help the Department of Justice track down and spread the word on missing or abducted children.

In other words, the situations surrounding the Wireless Emergency Alerts are similar to those that scroll across the bottom of television screens, and are designed to reach a wider base of people. Considering the diminishing presence of television in the lives of many, and the ever-present nature of mobile devices, the new alert system will be more comprehensive and effective than previous models.

In a blog posted on Friday, AT&T noted that the update is mandatory, and that iPhone users with iOS 6.1 or higher will receive the update automatically. Mobile owners with earlier incarnations of the Apple operating system, meanwhile, will have to connect with iTunes to receive the update.