- The Android Earthquake Alert system failed to detect recent tremors in north India, possibly due to its recent launch and gradual rollout to Android 5+ users in the country.
- The system utilizes accelerometers in Android smartphones to function as mini-seismometers, identifying potential earthquakes when multiple phones detect simultaneous shaking.
- Once an earthquake is detected, the system sends advance warnings to nearby Android handsets. The feature was recently made available in local languages in India.
- However, the system has limitations including the inability to detect all earthquakes, and errors in estimating magnitude and shaking intensity.
- Usage of this feature requires Wi-Fi and/or cellular data connectivity, with both Android Earthquake Alerts and location settings enabled.
I was curious and did a quick search. It looks like the system was criticized in Turkey as well? Not sure if the sample size is just too small or if it just wasn't firing for people.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66316462
This was the first thing I thought about after seeing this post. It was the majority of people in Turkey reported that they didn't get it, a lot of the the ones that reported they may have in the surveys weren't 100% certain either.
It works well in California. Just had one the other morning for a 4.2.
Depending on how far away it is I'll have a few seconds notice. This one was really close so the alert came in almost at the same time. Last year I had about 10-15 seconds notice for a 6.4.