I'm trying to understand the difference between two services from Google that deal with earthquake alerts:
Google Public Alerts API — described as a system that shows emergency alerts (including earthquakes).
Android Earthquake Alerts System — a system built into Android phones to detect and notify users of earthquakes using phone sensors.
My main question is: Are these two services related or connected in any way? Or are they completely separate systems?
Specifically:
Does the Public Alerts API provide the same earthquake alerts shown on Android devices?
Is the data source the same for both (e.g., official seismic agencies)?
Can developers access Android Earthquake Alert data via the Public Alerts API?
I’ve read that the Public Alerts API "relies on data from authorized agencies" but I couldn’t find a definitive source confirming this. If anyone can clarify with documentation or examples, I’d really appreciate it.
Thanks in advance.
They're completely unrelated.
Public Alerts is basically an emergency broadcast system used by governments to push notifications to everybody in an area... which might be an earthquake, but can be anything the authorities want to broadcast. For example, it saw some use in my city just last week due to a series of major storms passing through... and it was used during the Covid pandemic to advise of short-notice changes in the lockdown rules.
In contrast, Earthquake Alerts is a system for monitoring and warning of earthquakes specifically.