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How your Android phone can detect earthquakes

David Nield

created: June 22, 2025, noon | updated: July 2, 2025, 12:01 p.m.

Your Android phone has a superpower you might not be aware of: It can give you advance warning of earthquakes in more than 100 countries, including the US. Screenshot: GoogleOfficially, this is known as the Android Earthquake Alerts System. On both Pixels and Galaxy phones it’s Safety and emergency > Earthquake alerts. As for the Wear OS functionality, it shouldn’t need any extra configuration. Bear in mind that this Android Earthquake Alerts System isn’t an earthquake predictor, as earthquakes are notoriously difficult to predict.

1 month ago: Popular Science