The Google Android-based earthquake detector issued a false alarm.

Google has disabled its earthquake detection feature in Brazil after receiving multiple reports of false emergency alerts. This incident occurred on Friday morning when many smartphone users in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro were notified about a supposed earthquake with a magnitude of 5.5. The alerts, which were sent out around 2 AM, referred to tremors in the Ubatuba and Baixada Santista regions of the country.

According to reports from the Civil Defense of São Paulo, which manages an early warning system for disaster risks, no alert related to an earthquake had been issued, and there was no record of such an event in the state.

A Google spokesperson, Ed Fernandez, explained in a statement that the Android Earthquake Alerts System is a complementary service that uses Android phones to quickly estimate ground tremors and provide advance warnings to users. He noted that this system is not intended to replace official alert systems. After detecting signals from devices near the coast of São Paulo that triggered the alert, Google decided to disable the feature in Brazil and launched an investigation to clarify what happened. Additionally, they apologized to users for the inconvenience caused and affirmed their commitment to improving their tools.