Your Android Phone Can Alert You About An Earthquake! Here's How To Enable It

Delhi has witnessed its third earthquake in the last 13 days. While the first one came as a long tremor which many residents felt, the other two came unexpectedly. Thankfully, these earthquakes haven’t had a major impact, but receiving an alert during such an emergency can be helpful to you.

Google has recently announced that Android users can get earthquake alerts for early warning. According to Google, those extra seconds just before the Earthquake can help you quickly decide to get out of dangerous objects and take cover in the meantime. Your Android phone? That can simply be a mini earthquake detection system for you. Here’s how it works.

Earthquake Detection In Android Phones: How Does It Work

So how can your Android phone be a personal earthquake detector? It is the accelerometer in your phone that can detect ground shaking during an earthquake. As soon as an earthquake occurs, our phone detects the initial P-waves (primary waves) along with the location and sends the details to the earthquake detection server. It then quickly analyses the data to confirm if it is actually an earthquake and sends you an alert before the earthquake reaches the S-waves (secondary waves), which are slower but damaging waves. 

How To Enable Earthquake Detection In Your Android Phones

To make sure that your Android phone has an active earthquake detection, simply follow these steps:

1. First of all, go to your device settings and make sure location services are enabled. This allows Android to detect your approximate location during seismic activity.
2. In the device settings, search for Earthquake Alerts and turn the toggle on.
3. Make sure that your device’s Wi-Fi and/or mobile data is turned on, as the alerts are only sent when your device is connected.
4. Know that the system sends two kinds of alerts:

• BeAware Alerts notify you of light shaking.
• TakeAction Alerts warn of strong shaking with a loud sound and full-screen message.

5. You can turn these alerts off anytime through the same settings.