You’ve probably heard of the earthquake warning feature. Google announced its Android 13 operating system at Google I/O 2022, which is obviously an upgrade over Android 12. A few minor changes have been made to the operating system, but they are minor. Earthquake warning features are one of the OS’s newly introduced features. Let’s take a closer look at how it works and what it actually does!
Earthquake warning features introduced in Android 13
Although this is a new feature in Android 13, an earthquake alarm is not a new feature for some. Xiaomi and a few other mobile phones have earthquake early warning systems built-in. The following feature was recently added to Xiaomi Indonesia’s MIUI Indonesian ROM. According to Xiaomi, the feature will provide useful notifications on seismic activity in Indonesia that may result in earthquakes. The magnitude and location of the activity will alert users to avoid or flee the aforementioned earthquakes.
Google has also completed a similar implementation. The first part of the warning function is the mobile phone, which will use the built-in accelerometers in current smartphones. It can predict the occurrence of an earthquake by detecting relevant changes. If the phone detects an earthquake, it will send a signal to Google’s earthquake detection service, which will report the possible location. The server will then combine various pieces of information to determine whether or not the earthquake occurred. It will also determine where and how big it will be. After reviewing the following data, an alert will be sent to the users.
Xiaomi’s implementation appears to be more mature, at least on paper, as it will be able to dial emergency numbers and guide the user accordingly. We will have to wait until the feature is available globally before we can test it and see how reliable it is.
