If you have an Android phone in Costa Rica, it may soon buzz with a warning a few seconds before strong shaking reaches you. Google announced yesterday that it is expanding its Android Earthquake Alerts System from 98 countries and regions to more than 200. Costa Rica was reported among the newly covered countries in the updated coverage list published alongside the announcement.
Do not count on it yet. Google’s announcement named Panama and Guatemala but not Costa Rica, and Google has not published its full list of new countries. Even in Panama, where President José Raúl Mulino announced the country’s inclusion on Thursday, phones were still showing the feature as unavailable that evening, a sign the rollout is gradual. Local reports said phones in Costa Rica showed the same message. Google has not said when, or whether, the alerts will switch on here.
The timing matters. A week ago, the magnitude 7.7 earthquake centered in Panama was felt across most of Costa Rica, and the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (OVSICORI) measured it at the same 7.7. Aftershocks from that quake have kept rattling the Southern Zone since.
Here is how the system works. Every smartphone has a tiny motion sensor called an accelerometer. When enough Android phones in one area register shaking at the same time, Google’s servers estimate where the quake started and how big it is, then send alerts to phones in the area expected to shake.
The warning is possible because earthquakes send out two kinds of waves. The first wave is fast and weak. The damaging wave travels slower. The alert races ahead of that second wave, which can buy you a few seconds to get under a table. Alerts go out only for quakes of magnitude 4.5 or higher. Google says the system has sent more than 1 billion alerts worldwide since it launched in 2021.
You would see one of three alerts, depending on how hard your location is expected to shake. A Be Aware alert is a simple notification for light shaking, and it respects your volume and Do Not Disturb settings. A Be Ready alert is meant for noticeable shaking and can break through Do Not Disturb. A Take Action alert fills your screen, plays a loud sound and tells you to drop, cover and hold on. It is reserved for moderate to strong shaking.
Google says that in the coming months the Be Ready alert will also show a map of where shaking was detected and the estimated magnitude. You do not need to download anything. Earthquake alerts are on by default in countries where the system is active. To check yours, open Settings, tap Safety and emergency, then Earthquake alerts. If you do not see that menu, try Location, then Advanced, then Earthquake alerts.
Keep Wi-Fi or mobile data on, because alerts arrive over the internet. Your phone uses your approximate location to decide whether you are in the shaking zone. Google says that location is not used to identify you. Know the limits before you rely on it. The system will not catch every earthquake. Magnitude estimates can be wrong. An alert may reach you before, during or after the shaking starts, and you may get one for a quake you never feel.
If you are very close to the epicenter, expect little or no warning, because the damaging wave arrives almost as soon as the first one. OVSICORI seismologist Marino Protti has said early warning systems tend to be most useful between 50 and 150 kilometers (31 and 93 miles) from the epicenter.
The Google system works only on Android. If you use an iPhone, or want an alert source that works right now, Costa Rica already has free options built on the national seismic networks. OVSICORI, at the National University (UNA), runs the OVSICORI-UNA Alerta Terremotos app for both Android and iPhone. It sends early warnings based on the observatory’s own seismic stations and lets you choose the minimum magnitude you want to hear about.
The National Seismological Network (RSN) at the University of Costa Rica has its own free app on Google Play and the App Store with official quake reports. The university’s Seismic Engineering Laboratory also posts strong-motion notices on Telegram and on X. The two kinds of systems detect quakes differently, so they will not always alert at the same moment for the same event. Using both is reasonable.
Costa Rica was left out of Google’s system for years. It has been reported that the feature was blocked here for legal reasons, because Costa Rican law gives the National Emergency Commission (CNE) authority over emergency alerts. In a July response to a formal information request, the CNE said it had no direct relationship with Google, that the company’s data was not an official source for its decisions, and that a tool limited to Android phones could not reach the whole population.
The commission did not cite a specific legal provision barring the service. Protti, consulted by the CNE, saw no conflict with the national alert system but warned that people could confuse the two tools. Whichever alert reaches you first, the advice when the ground starts moving does not change. Drop to the floor, take cover under something sturdy and hold on until the shaking stops. In a country where the ground moves often, a few seconds of warning only helps if you already know what to do with them.
