Google will launch an earthquake alert system on Android

By 2022, Google will make the

Earthquake Alerts Android app available with an Android software update. It is a system that will automatically detect the oscillations of the accelerometer of each smartphone, to generate warnings on the initial phases of an earthquake.

The platform will therefore treasure the nearly 3 billion Android devices active all over the world to create anonymous graphs of how the earth’s layers move, alerting in the event of waves exceeding the danger threshold.

According to the scientists working on the function, it will be possible to warn users at the first hint of “P” waves, called primary because they are the first to be felt during an earthquake and already analyzed in particularly seismic areas, in order to secure the population before the eventual “S” wave, slower but also more fearful.

When it all started

Four years ago, the University of California created an app called MyShake to detect an earthquake with users’ smartphones in an economical and effective way. By analyzing the vibrations and distinguishing the usual ones due to the use of the telephone, the app was able to detect the arrival of an earthquake a few seconds in advance, giving those who are nearby a chance. The idea ended up in oblivion due to the low propensity of people to download the application, but it showed how the accelerometer present in every single device can be transformed into a small seismograph to be used in the most affected and most prone to arrival of a new shock. How Earthquake Alerts works What if you don’t need to install the app?