Android phones will be used to sense earthquakes around the world and may one day deliver global warnings, with the first mass alert system unveiled in California on Tuesday, Google announced.
Google, which helped develop Android, worked with California and the U.S. Geological Survey to build the quake alerts in all phones running the overall mobile operating system. Android users who have enabled location services and are near a shelter of magnitude 4.5 or higher will receive a full-screen earthquake alert telling them to fall to the floor and seek cover.
The screen will also provide estimates of the size and distance of the user’s shake.
The warning is based on the projected shaking at a particular location and a certain level of intensity. Depending on their distance from a shake, people could get several seconds or maybe a minute of warning.
The warnings are powered by the ShakeAlert system in California, which uses signals from more than 700 seismometers installed around the state that can sense seismic waves.
However, users do not need to download the State MyShake app to receive the alerts. That application, developed by the University of California, Berkeley and launched last year, has been downloaded by as many as 1 million of California’s 40 million residents. In contrast, many millions of people have Android phones.
“This announcement means that California’s world-class earthquake early warning system will be a standard feature on every Android phone – giving millions of precious seconds to drop, cover and hold as the big hit,” Govin Newsom said in a statement.
IPhone users will not receive the alerts through Apple’s operating system, but they can download the MyShake app.
On Tuesday, Google also announced that Android phones will begin detecting earthquakes from around the world through their motion-sensing accelerometer.
“Your Android phone could be a mini-seismometer, with millions of other Android phones joining in to form the world’s largest earthquake network in the world,” according to a Google blog post.
More than 2 billion devices have the Android operating system.
Hundreds of millions of people live in earthquake-prone areas. But many countries are lacking the resources to build detections and alarm systems, Google said.
The information will first be used to provide fast and accurate information on Google Search. But Google said it could start sending earthquake alarms next year.
