Google is finally starting to roll out its crowdsourced earthquake alerts feature outside of US, starting with New Zealand and Greece before moving on to other international borders.
The feature was introduced last year across Android devices, and started off in California. Google worked in conjunction with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the California Governor s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES). By relying on technology developed by ShakeAlert, an early warning signal could easily be emitted, received by Android mobile phones, and transmitted as a warning message to users. What s more interesting is how the technology is implemented in areas without proper seismographs. By relying on idle accelerometers built into Android devices, an earthquake warning could be sent out by relying on data received from millions of users that are all in the same area. Much like how Google Maps gives traffic updates by noting down phone locations, these phones could act as simpl