News that a tsunami might hit California on Thursday spread incredibly fast, after a preliminary magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit off the state’s North Coast. The National Weather Service issued a tsunami warning shortly after the shaking stopped — which has since been canceled — but Google and Apple also made sure their users knew of the possibility of dangerous waves.
The Bay Area tech giants blasted local users with conspicuous alerts Thursday, including push notifications to devices and, in Google’s case, an unusual pop-up on various websites operated by the company. With San Francisco’s tsunami sirens inactive, the tech alerts spread the weather service warning to hundreds of thousands of residents.
Apple’s emergency alert popped up on iPhones at 10:51 a.m., vibrating the devices and ringing out with brief siren sounds. A corresponding notification announced the tsunami warning and included intense language: “A series of powerful waves and strong currents may impact coasts near you. You are in danger. Get away from coastal waters.”
Google delivered notifications to its Pixel phones too and even put its Google suite to work: Users found “Tsunami Warning” notifications at the top of their Docs, Calendar and Search windows. The notifications, which attributed the news to the National Tsunami Warning Center, continued to pop up after the weather service arm canceled its warning.
It’s unclear how Google targeted these alerts. In the Bay Area, former journalist Stephen Shankland posted a screenshot and said it was the first time he’d received a tsunami warning, and X marketer Bruna Piovesan praised Google for the pop-ups.
Google did not immediately respond to SFGATE’s requests for comment Thursday.
SFGATE’s live blog on the earthquake, its damages and California’s now-canceled tsunami warning is available here.