TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Google has utilized motion sensors on over 2 billion Android devices to develop an early earthquake warning system. The system, known as Android Earthquake Alerts (AEA), claimed to be as effective as conventional seismometers, has detected more than 11,000 earthquakes and sent over 1,200 alerts to users in 98 countries from 2021-2024.
This finding was published in the journal Science on July 17. The researchers stated that the system has increased the access to earthquake warnings by tenfold, from 250 million people in 2019 to the current 2.5 billion users.
"Earthquakes are a constant threat to communities around the globe. While we've gotten good at knowing where they're likely to strike, we still face devastating consequences when they do," a Google representative wrote in a statement, as quoted from Live Science on Wednesday, July 30, 2025.
Google aims to provide a few seconds of warning before the shaking begins. A few seconds are more than enough to descend stairs, move away from hazardous objects, and seek shelter.
Seismometer-based early earthquake warning systems have previously been developed in several countries, such as China, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, and the United States. However, due to high construction costs, most countries can only afford regional-scale systems. Some countries don't even have similar warning systems.
To fill this gap, Google researchers developed AEA which utilizes the accelerometers in smartphones and smartwatches to detect the faster primary (P) waves that appear before the more damaging secondary (S) waves. Based on the detection results, the system estimates the earthquake's strength and location, then sends alerts to users in the affected areas.
One of the main challenges in developing AEA is the lower accuracy of smartphone accelerometers compared to seismometers. To overcome this, the research team combined data from billions of Android devices that record movement by default, then adjusted their interpretations based on device types, geological variations, and building structures in each region.
Already Used in Indonesia, Japan, and the United States
By March 2024, AEA had been operational in several countries, such as Greece, Turkey, the United States, Japan, and Indonesia. Of the users affected by earthquakes, 85 percent reported receiving warnings. 36 percent received warnings before feeling the shaking, 28 percent during the earthquake, and 23 percent afterwards.
During that period, there were only three false alarms. Two were caused by lightning storms, while another was triggered by unrelated mass notifications that made several phones vibrate simultaneously.
However, the system still struggles to estimate the magnitude of large earthquakes. When Turkey was hit by an earthquake in February 2023, its strength was initially underestimated by AEA. The researchers attributed the inaccurate forecast to weaknesses in the algorithm and data collection methods, which have now been updated.
The use of this early warning technology is still under discussion among technology corporations like Google. Nonetheless, the designers ensure that AEA is not created to replace official systems. Instead, this system supports efforts to improve detection through rapid large-scale data collection and feedback to the algorithms.
"AEA demonstrates that globally distributed smartphones can be used to detect earthquakes and issue warnings at scale with an effectiveness comparable to established national systems," as stated by the research team.
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