What you need to know
- Wear OS watches can now show earthquake alerts even when not paired with a smartphone.
- The feature removes the need for a connected Android phone to receive emergency alerts.
- The update arrives via Google Play Services v26.07 and rolls out server-side.
Google is rolling out an important update for Wear OS smartwatches that will allow them to show earthquake alerts even when they are not paired with a smartphone.
One of the best life-saving features of Android is its earthquake alert system. It uses built-in sensors like the gyroscope and accelerometer to detect seismic activity.
Based on anonymized data collected from multiple nearby devices, Android determines whether an earthquake is occurring in your area and then sends alerts to users in that region. The feature has proven useful many times, as noted by several Reddit users.
This is genuinely one of the most underrated yet critically life-saving features Google has added to Android, and it's great to see the company bringing it fully to Wear OS.
Google expanded this feature to Wear OS smartwatches last June, but it is now making it even more powerful. With the latest Google Play Services v26.07 update, as spotted by Droid-Life, Wear OS watches will be able to show earthquake alerts independently, even if they're not paired with an Android phone.
Until now, the system required the smartwatch to be connected to a smartphone to receive alerts. That dependency is now being removed.
- [Wear] With this feature, you can now get earthquake alerts on your Wear devices even if they are unpaired from the phone.
Google, however, hasn't officially detailed how this feature will work. Presumably, it'll function on cellular Wear OS watches or non-cellular models connected to Wi-Fi. There is also no clear information on how to manually enable the feature, but it's likely that Google will activate it by default through the Play Services update.
It'd be helpful if Google provided clearer guidance on how to enable this feature manually or published a dedicated support page explaining when and how it rolls out.
The Play Services update is already available through the Google Play Store. However, most of these features roll out through server-side updates, so you may need to wait for it to become active on your smartwatch.
