The MyShake app is now delivering ShakeAlert-powered alerts in Washington
The MyShake app is now delivering ShakeAlert-powered alerts in Washington
January 26, 2022
by Gabriel Lotto
Good news for people who have been waiting for a ShakeAlert app to come to their smartphones: As of today, the 322nd anniversary of the last Cascadia Big One, the MyShake app is now available in Washington state.
How it was before. When the ShakeAlert system rolled out to the public in Washington last May, it was a big step toward bringing earthquake early warnings, previously available only to pilot users in test mode, to the public at large. At the time, alerts could reach smartphones through two mechanisms:
- Android operating system alerts. These alerts come automatically through the Android operating system, meaning that anyone with an iPhone was missing out.
- The Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. These alerts reach all smartphones and even some older phones without internet access. If you have ever gotten an AMBER alert, you get WEA alerts.
What’s new? Now, almost anyone with a smartphone - or any device that can download apps from the App Store (Apple devices) or the Google Play Store (Android devices) - can download MyShake for free. MyShake, an app developed out of the UC Berkeley Seismo Lab, has already been delivering ShakeAlert-powered earthquake early warnings to millions of phones in California and Oregon, for free. It now expands its service area to Washington.
You can set your location in the app to a fixed point, so the app does not use location services. By default, the app will deliver alerts relevant to the device's location. Individualized location information is not harvested by MyShake.
Why get the app? If you already have access to ShakeAlert through the Android OS or through WEA, why bother to download an app like MyShake? There are a few reasons:
- Multiple modalities. When it comes to resiliency, a little bit of redundancy is a good thing. The more ways you have of getting an alert, the more likely you are to notice something unusual is going on, and the likelier you are to take action.
- Lower alerting threshold. The WEA system notifies users about earthquakes of magnitude 5 and up, for people who are likely to feel a shaking intensity of MMI 4+. The MyShake app notifies users about earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 and up, for people who are likely to feel a shaking intensity of MMI 3+. Those lower thresholds for the app mean that you’ll have more chances to receive an alert and practice your preparedness plan. Watch this video to learn about the difference between earthquake magnitude and intensity.
- WEA wasn’t built for speed. The WEA system has the advantage that it goes out to everyone without the need to sign up. But it wasn’t built to deliver messages broadly in a matter of seconds. The WEA system is improving to meet the demands placed on it by ShakeAlert, but for now there are quicker options out there. MyShake is tested and proven to deliver alerts within five seconds or less of the USGS reporting an earthquake detection, giving users a chance to protect themselves before shaking arrives.
Click here for more information about the ShakeAlert Earthquake Early Warning system.
Go to mil.wa.gov/alerts for the latest information about public alerting in Washington state.