What you need to know
- Google’s Android quake alert system mistakenly sent out warnings across Brazil, causing a temporary shutdown.
- São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro residents got alerts for a 5.5 quake that never happened.
- The company blamed offshore activity near São Paulo for confusing the system and apologized for the mistake.
Google’s Android quake alert system accidentally set off a wave of notifications across Brazil last week, causing a bit of chaos. As a result, the company decided to hit pause on the service for a while to sort things out.
The tech giant has temporarily shut down its Android earthquake alerts in Brazil after a glitch caused a false alarm in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, CNN Brasil reported (via 9to5Google). Early Friday morning, around 2 AM, folks were jolted awake by warnings of a 5.5 magnitude quake that never happened, with the system mistakenly pointing to Ubatuba and Baixada Santista as the epicenters.
São Paulo’s Civil Defense confirmed there was no seismic activity and clarified they didn’t send out any alerts, making it clear the Android warnings were a total mix-up.
Google owned up to the blunder, stating that the system got confused by some offshore activity near São Paulo, which led to the bogus alerts. It has since apologized for the false alarm.
The Android Earthquake Alerts System, launched in the U.S. in 2020, works by tapping into data from tons of Android phones. Using their built-in motion sensors, these devices can pick up on the first, weaker tremors (called P-waves) that hit before the stronger shaking (S-waves) kicks in. The idea is to give people a heads-up—just a few extra seconds—before the real shaking starts.
Essentially, Google’s earthquake alerts system turns smartphones into mini seismometers. Since launching more than four years ago, it has expanded to places like Greece and New Zealand.
This is the system’s first major false alarm since launch. While it reportedly missed alerts during the 2023 Turkey earthquake, Google insists it worked as expected.
Google hasn’t revealed the exact cause yet, but it has shut down the alert system across Brazil while investigating the incident.