Real time earthquake alerts on your smartphone are possible thanks to Earthquake Network. Started in 2012, Earthquake Network is a citizen science initiative implementing a crowdsourced Earthquake Early Warning system based on networks of smartphones. More than 20 million people took part in the initiative and the system has sent more than 7,800 real time earthquake alerts. In many seismic countries, Earthquake Network is currently the only alert system open to the public. To be part of the initiative and receive the alerts please install the Earthquake Network app on your smartphone.
The idea is to use the accelerometer on-board smartphones to detect in real-time the shaking induced by an earthquake. When an earthquake is detected, an alert is sent to all the smartphones within the affected area. If you are not too close to the epicenter, you can receive the alert in advance and you can take cover before you are reached by the damaging waves of the earthquake.