Android phones in California to get earthquake warnings
Californians who use Android phones will receive early warning earthquake alerts directly to their devices for the first time beginning Tuesday.
Google has partnered with the United States Geological Survey and the California Office of Emergency Services to directly deliver early warnings to Android devices from the state’s ShakeAlert system, according to Marc Stogaitis, principal software engineer for Android.
ShakeAlert uses a network of seismometers to detect earthquakes seconds before they occur, identifying the seismic waves that cause major ground shaking and sending alerts so that people know about the quake seconds or even a minute before shaking begins.
The system, which is one of the most sophisticated in the world, is designed to ensure that trains can brake, elevator doors can open and valves in fuel pipelines can close, among other disasterprevention measures.
“Particularly in earthquakes, seconds can matter,” said Brian Ferguson, spokesperson for CalOES. Every additional second of early warning helps people step out of elevators,
stop driving and take cover, which can save lives.
California introduced its ShakeAlert early warning app in October, but only about 1.1 million of the state’s nearly 40 million residents have downloaded the app so far. The new partnership will ensure much broader reach: Just over half of phones in the U.S. have Android operating systems, according to the research group Statista.
Californians can also receive ShakeAlert earthquake warnings through the state’s wireless emergency alerts, but the cellbased system does not always reach those using only WiFi and can be slowed by poor cell reception and a person’s distance from nearby towers, Stogaitis said.
The Android partnership will deliver the warnings directly to devices through the phone’s operating system, bypassing those barriers, Stogaitis said.
The amount of notice people receive depends on how close they are to the epicenter of the earthquake. The closer they are, they less notice they will get.
“Showing the great success of how this will work with Google will also go a long way to making others want to go on board as well,” Ferguson about other operating system providers.
Apple did not respond immediately to a question about whether it planned to partner with ShakeAlert.
The system will be unable to notify users if they have disabled their location services, Stogaitis said. Google will not store the location data, he added.
The alert will also be “richer” than those broadcast over the states’ emergency warning system, occupying the full phone screen with specific instructions, Stogaitis said. That can help people make decisions that prevent injuries from gas explosions, fires and power outages in the aftermath of an quake, he said.
Google also announced its own earthquake early warning system will start on Tuesday. It will use Android phones as mini-seismometers.
When Android phones are plugged in and not in use, they can be used to collect shaking data with their builtin accelerometer (a device currently used to detect movements like when the user rotates a phone). By collecting data across many phones, Google can identify the shaking pattern that signifies an earthquake and send an early alert, Stogaitis said.
Stogaitis’ team hopes to implement this earthquake warning system in early 2021 in regions of the world that lack equipment like the seismometers that make up California’s ShakeAlert system, he said.
“Over the coming year, you can expect to see the earthquake alerts coming to more states and countries using Android’s phonebased earthquake detection,” Stogaitis wrote in a blog post.
When Android phones are plugged in and not in use, they can be used to collect shaking data with their builtin accelerometer (a device currently used to detect movements like when the user rotates a phone). By collecting data across many phones, Google can identify the shaking pattern that signifies an earthquake and send an early alert.