Xiaomi Phones Will Now Warn You About an Earthquake, But Only in China

Xiaomi has added a new earthquake warning feature on its smartphones and Mi TV. But at the moment, this feature is only available in China. The announcement was made by the Chinese smartphone maker at its annual Mi Developers conference in Beijing. Xiaomi said its MIUI 11-based smartphones as well as the Mi TV boxes will now come pre-installed with an early earthquake warning feature. The integration of an earthquake warning function into MIUI will warn users of the possible earthquake that may hit the country and take precautionary steps. Xiaomi claims that the integration will send out alerts to smartphones running MIUI 11 and Mi TV "seconds to tens of seconds" before an earthquake is about to hit.

The feature was first tested by Xiaomi in September this year. The company said that feature has been activated in Sichuan Province, which is more prone to earthquakes in China. Xiaomi will be expanding the feature and make it available soon for all the users across the country. The report said that it has been developed in partnership with the Institute of Care-life, a Chengdu-based organisation that focuses on natural disaster warning. At the Mi Developers conference, Xiaomi said that the feature is the first of its kind globally. However, Apple, in 2011, had already rolled out an earthquake alert feature for iPhone users in Japan. The Japan Meteorological Agency and the Japanese government provide the alerts for the iPhone users.