Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Android users in Ukraine will get air raid alerts directly on their phones before expected attacks happen near them, Google announced today. In an updated blog post, the company said it’s working with the Ukrainian government to roll out an alert system for Android phones in the country. The feature was first spotted by XDA-Developers.
“Tragically, millions of people in Ukraine now rely on air strike alerts to try to get to safety,” Google says in the announcement. The Android pings will be based on the alerts already being sent by the Ukrainian government, and it’s adapted from a system built for quickly sending warnings about earthquakes, according to Dave Burke, vice president of engineering for Android.
Google has already been…