Earthquake Alerts remains one of Android’s most useful safety features. It can warn millions of users seconds before an earthquake strikes, giving you a crucial few seconds to move to safety or brace yourself. In July 2025, Google expanded earthquake alerts to Wear OS. Now, it’s making the feature even better by introducing a key upgrade.

Until now, earthquake alerts would only appear on a Wear OS watch if it was paired with and connected to your phone. With the Google Play Services v26.07 update, Google will upgrade this behavior to ensure earthquake alerts on Wear OS work even when the watch is not paired to the phone (via Droid-Life).

[Wear] With this feature, you can now get earthquake alerts on your Wear devices even it’s unpaired from the phone.

This is a small change, but it immediately makes Wear OS earthquake alerts a lot more useful, especially if you tend not to carry your phone while running or other sporting activities.

While not mentioned, the alerts will presumably only arrive on watches that feature cellular connectivity. Bluetooth-only watches may still rely on a paired phone to receive alerts. It’s also unclear whether users will need to manually enable this feature on their watch or if it will activate automatically with the Play Services update.

Google’s earthquake alert system can be a lifesaver

On phones, Google’s earthquake alert system uses built-in sensors, such as the accelerometer, to detect tremors. The device then sends anonymized data to Google’s servers. When multiple phones in the same area detect tremors, the company estimates the earthquake’s magnitude and epicenter and quickly pushes alerts to nearby users.

If only light shaking is expected, Google sends out a “Be Aware Alert.” But if the situation is more serious, a “Take Action Alert” goes out, which will override your phone’s Do Not Disturb, volume, and notification settings to catch your attention. It will trigger a red screen on your phone with a loud alarm and safety instructions. The Wear OS implementation should also work similarly.

The new Play services build started rolling out on February 23, 2026. But since this is typically a staged release, it may take a while to land on your phone.