Google is quietly giving its Wear OS smartwatches more independence during emergencies. According to the latest Google Play Services release notes, earthquake alerts will now reach certain Wear OS devices even when they are not connected to a smartphone.
Until now, Wear OS simply mirrored the alert shown on an Android phone. If your phone buzzed with an earthquake warning, your watch did the same. However, the watch depended entirely on that phone connection.
That changes with this update. Going forward, a Wear OS watch can send earthquake alerts on its own, even if the phone is out of range. In other words, users will no longer miss critical warnings just because Bluetooth disconnects.
There is one important detail. The watch will likely need its own internet connection to receive alerts independently. That means this feature will mostly benefit models with built-in mobile data connectivity. WiFi-only devices may not get the same standalone support unless they are connected to a network.
The update builds on Google’s broader Earthquake Alerts System, which already runs on Android devices. The system relies on aggregated sensor data from millions of smartphones. When a phone’s accelerometer detects unusual shaking, it sends that signal along with a general location to Google’s servers.
If many nearby devices report similar vibrations at the same time, Google’s system recognizes a potential earthquake. It then quickly creates and pushes an alert to users in the affected area. This approach effectively turns millions of Android phones into a distributed seismic detection network.
For now, Google has not confirmed whether Wear OS watches will also contribute sensor data to the system. Currently, the network depends on smartphones. However, adding watch-based data could strengthen detection accuracy in the future.
