A new earthquake warning system comes to California, powered by Google - NBC News

By contrast, many millions of people own Android phones.

“This announcement means that California’s world-class earthquake early warning system will be a standard function on every Android phone — giving millions precious seconds to drop, cover and hold on when the big one hits,” Gov.

Also Tuesday, Google announced that Android phones will begin detecting earthquakes from around the world through their motion-sensing accelerometers.

“Your Android phone can be a mini-seismometer, joining millions of other Android phones out there to form the world’s largest earthquake detection network,” according to a Google blog post.

But Google said it could begin sending out earthquake alerts next year