Earthquake alert function on Android smartphones fails
Google failed to warn Turkish residents of deadly tremors
A few years ago, Google added earthquake alerts to the Android operating system. But the recent tragedy in Turkey has shown their ineffectiveness.
Google claims that this alert system notifies users of an earthquake a minute before it occurs. The system operates in dozens of countries around the world. It uses a large network of Android phones that contain tiny accelerometers and can detect shaking. When smartphones start shaking at the same time, Google can pinpoint the epicenter and estimate the strength of the earthquake. This works with earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or higher.
Google says that the alerts were triggered during the worst earthquakes in Turkey in February, which killed more than 50,000 people. Then the first earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 occurred early in the morning, and another strong earthquake shook the neighborhood at lunchtime.
However, BBC journalists conducted an investigation, visited three cities in the earthquake zone, interviewed hundreds of people, and found out that almost no Android smartphone users would receive notifications. The BBC was able to find a limited number of users who received alerts only before the second earthquake.
Google claims that on February 6, the system successfully sent notifications to millions of people. However, the only evidence was a file with 13 social media posts in which people talked about the alert. But mostly, the authors of the posts write about the second earthquake, and some are not even completely sure what really happened.
