Wear OS Watches Can Now Get Earthquake Alerts Even Without Your Phone

In recent years, Google has continued to expand the earthquake alerts that were first introduced to Android in 2020. These alerts are a pretty ground-breaking feature, as they will attempt to alert folks of an earthquake earlier than almost any other device can. And since that first introduction, Google has continued to try and expand availability, even hitting all 50 US states in late 2024.

Today, Google tipped us to a change that will allow earthquake alerts to arrive on Wear OS watches, even if they aren’t paired with your smartphone. To be clear here, Wear OS has had earthquake alerts since June of 2025, but those alerts would only work when your phone was connected to your watch. Now, thanks to a short changelog shared by Google, we know that they’ve figured out a way for these to show up without a phone nearby.

In the newest Google Play Services update (v26.07), Google says the following is coming:

• [Wear] With this feature, you can now get earthquake alerts on your Wear devices even it’s unpaired from the phone.

Unfortunately, Google hasn’t provided any sort of support documentation to tell you how to set this up or when it’ll arrive, only that it should be here as a part of this latest Google Play Services build. If you see any new settings or anything on your watch, do let us know.