Android Integrates California Earthquake Early Warning System

California earthquake detection and warnings will be baked into all Android phones, said Google and the California Office of Emergency Services Tuesday. The system uses alert data from the state’s earthquake early warning system, OES said. Each smartphone will act as a “mini seismometer” using accelerometers that can sense possible quakes, Google blogged. “If the phone detects something that it thinks may be an earthquake, it sends a signal to our earthquake detection server, along with a coarse location of where the shaking occurred. The server then combines information from many phones to figure out if an earthquake is happening.” Google expects to expand to other states and countries over the coming year, it said.