The Federal Communications Commission will require emergency alerts sent to cell phones in a crisis to be more geographically precise.

The agency voted at its meeting Tuesday on an item that ensures wireless providers send alerts that are more targeted to individuals affected by a natural disaster or other crises when sending alerts through the Wireless Emergency Alert system.

The goal of updating the standard is to ensure that only people who are affected get messages, thus ensuring that people getting alerts will take the information seriously. Authorities have been reluctant in some cases to send out alerts because the messages would be broadcast over a much wider area than was necessary. These officials have said they didn’t want to unnecessarily panic people or inundate them with warnings that did not pertain to them.

“Overbroad alerting can cause public confusion, lead some to opt out of receiving alerts altogether, and, in many instances, complicate rescue efforts by unnecessarily causing traffic congestion and overloading call centers,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said.

The update to the system comes as the nation’s emergency alert system comes under increased scrutiny. Earlier this month, an official in Hawaii mistakenly alerted millions of people of an incoming ballistic missile, causing widespread panic. The false alert was not corrected for 38 minutes.

FCC officials also presented preliminary results of an investigation at Tuesday’s meeting that points to a mix of human error and poorly designed interfaces that resulted in the incident. The person responsible for the alert misinterpreted instructions and thought the alert was real. The FCC investigation is still ongoing.

The FCC’s effort to update the standard to make the WEAs more geographically precise started was before the incident in Hawaii took place. The FCC considered the item at the urging of the two California Senators, Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, who told the FCC that some local authorities in their state were reluctant to send out alerts during the deadly wildfires that burned through California last year.

The FCC also adopted updates to the system in 2016 that require carriers to allow messages to be sent in multiple languages. It also increased the character limit for messages from 90 to 360. And messages will be able to support hyperlinks and multimedia.  Those changes won’t take effect until May of next year. 

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