Android Earthquake Alerts Reached 11.4 Million in Venezuela Quake
The Venezuela earthquake is the largest real-world test yet of Google's smartphone-based early warning system, which relies on accelerometers in Android devices rather than government-operated seismic sensor networks.
Reporting from 1 sources: GIGAZINE.
On June 24, 2026, two earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 struck northwestern Venezuela, killing at least 1,450 people. Google's Android smartphone earthquake detection network detected the P-waves within three seconds and sent alerts to approximately 11.4 million users, giving them a few seconds to two minutes of warning before the damaging S-waves arrived.
On June 24, 2026, two earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 hit northwestern Venezuela, killing at least 1,450 people. Google's Android earthquake detection network, which uses smartphone accelerometers to detect P-waves, sent alerts to roughly 11.4 million users. The system detected the first P-waves within three seconds of the quake's onset and issued its first alert nine seconds after the event, giving people in the affected area anywhere from a few seconds to two minutes of warning before the stronger S-waves arrived.
Because the two quakes occurred seconds apart, the system treated them as a single large earthquake and sent overlapping alerts. Marc Stogaitis, a principal engineer at Google involved in developing the system, said the network functioned as designed. The Android earthquake alert system has been operational since 2021 and by 2025 reached 2.5 billion users worldwide.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.