San Francisco: Android phones’ built-in earthquake detection functionality, tested during a 5.1-magnitude earthquake near California’s San Jose on Tuesday, seems to have passed with flying colours, and also beat iPhones at alerting users.
According to Android Authority, Dave Burke, Google’s vice president of engineering for Android, tweeted a neat visualisation showing loads of Android phones detecting the quake before the shock waves hit.
“Earthquake in SF Bay Area today. Yellow/red represents shaking Android phones acting as seismometers. Circles are our inferred estimate of P and S waves. Earthquake alerts sent instantaneously to surrounding phones before the waves hit,” he tweeted.
Several social media users reported receiving earthquake notifications five to ten seconds before they felt the shock waves on their Android phones.
Twitter users also noted that Android users received an early warning, while iPhone users received it later, according to the report.
A warning like this isn’t the first time Android’s earthquake detection network has provided an early warning. Last year, the system delivered early warnings during a quake in the Philippines, the report added.
To enable earthquake detection functionality on your Android phone, you can do so by tapping Settings > Safety & emergency > Earthquake alerts.
However, this feature is not available in every country, so you can check Google’s support page for more information.
Follow on Twitter | Posted by Mansoor Hameed | 
