Google has announced that it will immediately begin sending out alerts for incoming air raids to Ukrainian Android phone users in an effort to help them get to safety.
Kent Walker, Google’s president of global affairs, stated in a company blog post Thursday that the Air Raid Alert system will work in collaboration with the Ukrainian government.
“At the request and with the assistance of the Ukrainian government, we’ve begun rolling out a rapid Air Raid Alerts system for Android phones in Ukraine,” Walker wrote. “This work is in addition to the country’s existing air raid alert systems and is based on alerts already delivered by the Ukrainian government.”
According to Dave Burke, vice president of engineering at Google for Android, the system is based on the earthquake alerts that the company sends to users. He claims that the new system has already begun to be deployed and that it will be expanded to target all Android phones in Ukraine over the next few days.
“The system makes use of our low latency alert mechanism, which we built for earthquake alerts,” Burke wrote on Twitter. “The air raid system is also supplemental, using the same triggers as the country’s existing air raid alert systems.”
Google directed Google Play users in Ukraine to the Ukrainian Alarm app on March 4. They claimed that the app was developed by Ukrainian developers in collaboration with the Ukrainian government in order to provide better air raid warnings.
Ukrainians will now be able to receive notifications if their phone’s location and internet are turned on without the use of a third-party app.
“Air raid alerts and sirens are a tragic daily reality in Ukraine, and we’re doing everything we can to help people get these critical alerts in as many ways as possible,” the company said.
Google has already barred Russian state-run media outlets from its platforms, including the Google Play store. It has suspended Google Pay for customers of sanctioned Russian banks, preventing them from using the mobile payment system.
Source: CBS
