Thousands and thousands of phones issued an earthquake alert this midnight that had occurred in Vitoria-Gasteiz. They did it afterwards, but only on mobile phones that had this function active. It was not a message from Es-Alert or any official Emergency dispatch. This message was launched by Android, taking advantage of Google technology.
The message came through Shake Alert, a system that uses seismographs but also users’ own phones. It is designed especially for California, a US state that is too accustomed to earthquakes and lives in fear of one of them.
So, if a user has this alert active and dozens of Android phones shake around them, Google automatically receives the data, analyzes it and assesses whether to launch the alert, combining it with information from seismographs. And all this taking advantage of the possibilities that telephones have, which when noticing an agitation can detect these earthquakes.
Additionally, this Google notice has two levels. The first is the one that was activated this morning in Álava, for movements less than 4.5º. Thus, the notification was sent to mobile phones like any other. If it had exceeded 4.5º, then the mobile phones would have beeped just as they did with Es-Alert.
The message increased concern
Far from reassuring, The message sent by Google stirred up fear even more and fear in many homes. And the message is generic (the same in all countries) and he assured: “There are usually replicas.” This message is generic, but many were unaware of this. In addition, SOS Deiak took more than an hour to send a message of calm, which increased concern and led hundreds of people to take to the streets. Here you can see the message sent by Google:
We must insist thate Es-Alert and Google notifications are completely different. And the alert that reached many of you last night is a warning completely unrelated to the institutions.
In any case, also It is necessary that your mobile phone allows these notifications to be able to receive them. And to do this you should search for ‘earthquakes’ or ‘earthquake’ in the Security and Emergency options of your phone. There you will see if you have the earthquake alert activated. This video published on YouTube tells you how to activate these alerts.
