Google’s Android-based earthquake detector had a false alarm

Google has disabled its Android earthquake detection feature in Brazil after many smartphone users in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro received false emergency alerts on Friday morning, Android Police reports. The alerts of a nonexistent 5.5 magnitude earthquake were sent to devices around 2AM this morning, and pinpointed earthquakes in the country’s Ubatuba and Baixada Santista regions.

In an email to The Verge, Google spokesperson Ed Fernandez states:

According to CNN Brasil, the Civil Defense of São Paulo, which manages an early warning system for disaster risk, said it “did not issue any alert and that there is no record of any occurrence related to the possible earthquake in the state.” In a statement to CNN, Google apologized for the inconvenience, said it’s investigating what went wrong, and confirmed that “our system detected cell phone signals near the coast of São Paulo and triggered an earthquake alert to users in the region.”