On Monday morning at 5:36 AM, strong tremors were felt across Delhi-NCR and other parts of Northern India. In light of safety concerns, we're introducing a special mobile feature that alerts you to earthquakes.
Google provides the Android Earthquake Alerts System, operational on all Android phones. While available in India, it was recently deactivated in Brazil due to misinformation concerns.
To activate this feature on a Google Android smartphone, users can enable or disable it through their mobile settings. Google has shared this information in a blog post.
Every Android smartphone is equipped with a small accelerometer, functioning like miniature seismometers. When the phone is charging, it can detect earthquakes in their initial stages. Google has detailed this in their blog post.
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According to Google, when Android smartphones at the same location start to vibrate together, Google identifies the earthquake's epicenter and sends alerts to surrounding areas. Google believes internet signals travel significantly faster than the speed of earthquakes, moving at light speed.
Information on enabling or disabling Earthquake Alerts in Android smartphones is available. Upon checking for this feature on some Android devices, it was not found.
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Concerns about the accuracy of Google's earthquake detection feature have been raised several times. Recently, due to false earthquake information, Google's alert system was deactivated in Brazil. In India, the feature remains active.
