Google has introduced a new SoS Alerts Feature to their service, which will provide instant alerts on Google Search, Google News and Google Maps regarding a danger or a situation of crisis. This feature will help to gather all the important and critical information about the affected area at one place.
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How will ‘SoS Alert Feature’ Help?
The SOS Alert feature will directly inform the people if they are near to the affected area. It will essentially provide the related information about any natural calamity or disaster or any human-caused attack. People who are either in that area or are looking for any details about the situation, will be provided with all the relevant information and details.
What Google Claims?
In the blog by Google, this SoS search feature will help the users to quickly understand the situation and help them decide what to do during a crisis. Not only this, SoS Alert Tool will also provide the critical information and required resources from the different local authorities and first-hand respondents. This information will include news articles, emergency numbers and all other useful information needed in a single place.
How will one Get a SoS Alert?
It depends on how close one is to the affected area. You will get a notification on your device, that will provide you all the information. In case your are farther away from the area, your search query about the relevant location will provide you an SoS alert with an overview of the situation. You will get to see a SoS Alert from Google at the top of the search results.
SoS Alert on Google Maps
You will get see a Specific Icon on Google Maps if you near to the affected area. The map will provide you a Tappable Card, that will direct you to the required information like the emergency or help numbers and all critical information from different local authorities and first-hand respondents. This tool will start operating in 12 countries for now, which includes India, USA, Philippines, Brazil, Mexico, Australia and Canada.
Channel for Donation
With alerts and all the required information, further Google will also provide donation opportunities to all the users. With all the related news and help numbers, Google Maps will provide you the real-time updates regarding the road closures and traffic.
Facebook Safety Check vs. Google SoS Alert
Google SoS Alert will have a team to decide which events will be taken into account, and is not an user-activation service. On the other hand, Facebook Safety Check is handled by its users. There has been cases in the past, where Security Check has been activated for some small-scale incident and users were getting unnecessary notifications.
Google’s effort towards such an initiative to help people in a situation of crisis would provide immense support to a huge number of people!