The service was launched in the country on September 27.
The Android Earthquake Alert system failed to detect recent tremors in north India, possibly due to its recent launch and gradual rollout to Android 5+ users in the country.
The system utilizes accelerometers in Android smartphones to function as mini-seismometers, identifying potential earthquakes when multiple phones detect simultaneous shaking.
Once an earthquake is detected, the system sends advance warnings to nearby Android handsets. The feature was recently made available in local languages in India.
However, the system has limitations including the inability to detect all earthquakes, and errors in estimating magnitude and shaking intensity.
Usage of this feature requires Wi-Fi and/or cellular data connectivity, with both Android Earthquake Alerts and location settings enabled.
From the article, your device needs to be charging with location turned on. I don't think that's what the majority of the people do. That and probably a small sample size for the alert to be reliably sent to other devices.
I keep mine off except when driving or when I want GPS-tagged photos. Saves me a bit of battery life.
My phone is always with me in my pocket so I don't feel the need to track its location using "Find My". And to be honest, no one is going to find stealing a Pixel 6a enticing..
This is weird. How can charging be a requirement? Phones obviously cannot be charging all the time. It won't work if an earthquake happens when the phone's not charging