Xiaomi is offering earthquake detection in MIUI 11

MIUI 11 has been out for over a month now, and the Android skin has quite a few interesting features. Now, Xiaomi has revealed that it’s also brought a potentially life-saving feature to the table.

The company announced on its blog that MIUI 11 and its Mi TV platform offers earthquake detection in China. The feature — created in conjunction with a disaster warning institute — quietly launched in the Sichuan province as part of a limited trial back in September.

Xiaomi says the MIUI 11 earthquake detection feature will soon be rolling out across China, and promises to deliver warnings “seconds to tens of seconds” before seismic waves arrive.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen earthquake warnings on smartphones, as carriers, third-party apps, and the 3GPP group all offer similar functionality. TechCrunch adds that Apple also adopted native earthquake warnings in Japan back in 2011, while the US FEMA organization was testing a system this year.

In any event, Xiaomi’s approach means you don’t need to download separate apps and it offers reduced latency too, the manufacturer says. The latter point is particularly important, as even an extra second or two before the quake hits your area could be a life-saver.

Xiaomi also called on more mobile brands and IoT providers to offer similar functionality, saying it was willing to share its experience and practices with others.

We’ve asked Xiaomi about plans to bring the MIUI 11 earthquake detection feature to other markets and will update the article accordingly when we receive an answer. The company is teaming up with a Chinese institute for the warnings though, which suggests that it’ll need to work with other institutes for other markets.