Twitter has launched a feature allowing emergency services to provide real-time warnings to mobile phones during bushfires and other natural disasters.
Organisations will be able to mark tweets carrying critical information as "alerts", which will feature an orange bell for added visibility.
More than a dozen organisations have signed up to the service, including five state police forces, a number of state fire services, and federal and local government departments.
Participating organisations will choose for themselves what information merits a Twitter alert designation.
After signing up to receive alerts, users can elect to have the tweets delivered as SMS notifications directly to a mobile device.
Those with iPhone or Android phones can opt for push notifications instead of SMS alerts.
Twitter says the service will make it easier for those organisations to get critical information to the right people at the right time.
"We have made this service available because it’s important for our users to be able to receive reliable information during times of immediate crisis," Twitter said on its Australia Blog.
