Google wants to leverage the reach of its mobile operating system to provide an alternative and today announced the Android Earthquake Alerts System.

The first sees Android devices in California receive earthquake warnings that provide a few seconds heads-up before shaking arrives.

Google worked with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) to deploy.

Google wants to address that problem with the “Android Earthquake Alerts System.” It turns your phone into a mini seismometer to form the “world’s largest earthquake detection network.”.

When that occurs, your phone will send a general location to Google’s earthquake detection server.

We’re essentially racing the speed of light (which is roughly the speed at which signals from a phone travel) against the speed of an earthquake.

“Over the coming year,” Google will issue alerts using its “phone-based earthquake detection” for other states and countries.

For this to work, Google Location Services (Settings > Location > Google Location Accuracy) have to be enabled. !

Google today also announced that the Android Emergency Location Services (ELS), which sends more accurate positioning data when calling emergency operators, will now share your set device language

Google announces Android Earthquake Alerts System