Google will immediately begin issuing incoming air raid alerts to users of Ukrainian Android phones to help them stay safe, the company announced.
In a post on the company’s blog on Thursday, Kent Walker, president of global affairs at Google, said the air strike alert system would work in conjunction with the Ukrainian government.
“At the request and with the help of the Ukrainian government, we have begun to deploy a rapid alert system for Android phones in Ukraine,” Walker wrote. “This work is complementary to the country’s existing air strike warning systems and is based on alerts already being sent by the Ukrainian government.”
Dave Burke, Google’s vice president of engineering for Android, said the system is based on earthquake alerts sent to users. He says that the new system has already started to be implemented and will be increased to target all Android phones in Ukraine in the coming days.
“The system takes advantage of our low-latency alert mechanism we created for earthquake alerts,” Burke said. he tweeted. “The air attack system is also complementary and shares the same triggers that are used for existing air attack alert systems in the country.”
Tragically, millions of people in Ukraine now rely on airstrikes to try to secure themselves. Working with the Government of Ukraine, we are implementing a rapid air attack alert system for all Android phones in Ukraine. 1/3
– Dave Burke (@davey_burke) March 10, 2022
On March 4, Google directed Google Play users in Ukraine to the Ukrainian Alarm app. They said that the application was created by Ukrainian developers in cooperation with the Ukrainian government to provide people with better warnings of airstrikes. Now Ukrainians will be able to receive alerts if the location of their phone and the Internet are activated without the application of third parties.
“Air raid alerts and sirens in Ukraine are a tragic daily reality, and we are doing our best to help people receive these crucial alerts in as many ways as possible,” the company said.
Google has already done that locked Russian state media channels on their platforms, including the Google Play Store. Suspended Google Pay for sanctions on Russian banksthat is, customers of these banks will not be able to use the mobile payment system.
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