Google has acknowledged that its Android-based earthquake early warning system failed to issue high-level alerts to millions of people during Turkey’s devastating twin earthquakes in February 2023, the BBC reported on Monday.
The magnitude 7.8 and 7.5 earthquakes affected 11 provinces in the country’s south and southeast on February 6, killing more than 53,000 people in Turkey and leaving millions homeless.
Only 469 most urgent “Take Action” alerts were sent during the initial 7.8 magnitude earthquake, despite an estimated 10 million people living within 158 kilometers (98 miles) of the epicenter who could have received up to 35 seconds of warning.
Instead, around 500,000 people received a lower-level “Be Aware” alert, a notification that does not trigger a loud alarm or override a phone’s Do Not Disturb mode, making it unlikely to wake users at 4:17 a.m., when the first earthquake struck.
The Android Earthquake Alerts System (AEA), developed by Google and active in nearly 100 countries, detects seismic activity through Android phones and pushes out alerts independently of national systems. Android phones account for over 70 percent of the smartphones in Turkey.
In the aftermath of the disaster, Google initially defended the system, telling the BBC it had “performed well.” But internal research published in Science this year revealed that the system drastically underestimated the quake’s magnitude, initially registering it as between 4.5 and 4.9, far below the actual 7.8.
The second major earthquake later that day also saw limited alert distribution, with about 8,000 phones receiving “Take Action” alerts and just under 4 million receiving “Be Aware” notifications.
Following criticism and internal analysis, Google revised its detection algorithm and retrospectively simulated the first earthquake. The updated system would have sent 10 million serious alerts and 67 million lighter ones, Google says.
Experts expressed frustration at the delayed transparency. “We’re not talking about a little event — people died — and we didn’t see a performance of this warning in the way we would like,” said Elizabeth Reddy, a professor at the Colorado School of Mines. Seismologists also warned that governments might be overly reliant on Google’s system in place of robust national infrastructures.
Google has emphasized that AEA is meant to be supplementary, not a replacement for official warning systems.
The BBC noted it had yet to receive a response from Google regarding the system’s performance during the 2025 earthquake in Myanmar.