“We hope to supplement the government’s efforts on earthquake alerts and provide people with the advance notice they need to stay safe. In India, we have been working closely with the NDMA to provide users with helpful safety information about natural disasters such as floods and cyclones on Google Search and Maps. We’re proud to further our association with the NDMA, along with the NSC, to bring the Android Earthquake Alerts system to India,” Micah Berman, Product Manager, Android Safety, wrote in a blog post
Google is bringing the Android Earthquake Alerts System – a free service that provides Android users automatic early warning alerts before shaking starts in their area – to India. The alerts will be available to all Android 5+ users during the coming week in Indian languages supported by Android.
If you wish to receive earthquake alerts, make sure you have Wi-Fi and/or cellular data connectivity, and both Android Earthquake Alerts and location settings enabled. You can also turn off Earthquake Alerts in device settings.
For this launch, Google teamed up with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the National Seismology Center (NSC).
“We hope to supplement the government’s efforts on earthquake alerts and provide people with the advance notice they need to stay safe. In India, we have been working closely with the NDMA to provide users with helpful safety information about natural disasters such as floods and cyclones on Google Search and Maps. We’re proud to further our association with the NDMA, along with the NSC, to bring the Android Earthquake Alerts system to India,” Micah Berman, Product Manager, Android Safety, wrote in a blog post.
How Android Earthquake Alerts System works?
The tiny accelerometers in an Android device can act as mini seismometers to indicate an earthquake might be happening. If many smartphones detect earthquake-like shaking around the same time, Google’s server can use this information to estimate that an earthquake may be happening, as well as characteristics of the event such as its epicentre and magnitude.
The server then sends an earthquake alert directly to Android users, several seconds before severe shaking does.
The server then sends an earthquake alert directly to Android users, several seconds before severe shaking does.
The Android Earthquake Alerts System is already deployed in many countries around the world.