Google has temporarily disabled its Android earthquake detection feature in Brazil after users in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro received false alerts of a 5.5 magnitude earthquake early Friday morning. The erroneous alerts were sent around 2 AM, indicating seismic activity in the Ubatuba and Baixada Santista regions.
The Android Earthquake Alerts System, which utilizes accelerometers in Android devices as a seismometer, was first launched in California in 2020 and has since expanded to other countries. Reports indicate that the Civil Defense of São Paulo, responsible for managing disaster risk alerts, did not issue any warning and confirmed that there was no record of an actual earthquake.
In response to the incident, Google has stated that the system is a supplemental service designed to provide quick estimates of earthquake shaking and early warnings to users. It is not intended to replace official public warning systems. The company is currently investigating the cause of the false alerts and has apologized for the inconvenience to users.
For more information, visit the original article on The Verge.