Student-developed Earthquake Alert App Goes Viral, Records 320, 000 Downloads

A student-developed earthquake alert app has gone viral, recording 320,000 downloads because of its 100 per cent alert accuracy.

The earthquake alert app was developed by a Taiwanese senior high school student, and went viral following a magnitude 7.2 earthquake off the coast of Hualien County on April 3.

Launched by independent developer Lin Tzu-yu (林子祐) last summer, it has been downloaded 320,000 times so far to top the Apple iOS’ free app chart.

Tzu-yu has come forward to say that his invention was only complimenting the efforts of the government.

That is amidst complaints from many Tiawanese complaining of not getting the alert from the government earthquake warning system on time on their cell phones.

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The latest invention however is trending because of its near perfect accuracy, notifying users of the earthquake alert app seconds to tens of seconds before they are felt.

The app features an early warning service for Taipei, Hsinchu, Taichung, Chiayi, Tainan, Yilan, Kaohsiung and Hualien areas, where its fame and that of its maker, have soared.

A building after the earthquake that struck Taiwan

Another advantage of the app is that users can customize it, by imputing locations of their preference and seismic intensity level at which they want to be warned.

On the other hand, when the magnitude 7.2 quake struck, many Tiawanese complained of not getting the alert from the government earthquake warning system on time on their cell phones.

This is amidst clarifications from the Central Weather Administration (CWA) that national-level warning is only issued for quakes with a magnitude above five.

Background information on the inventor showed that he spent 18 months developing the software, following a childhood experience of encountering a major temblor.

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Incidentally, Tzu-yu further shocked observers when he said the greatest challenge was his lack of knowledge in mobile app programming languages, but he started from scratch and learned through a tutorial series on YouTube.

Also, he would turn to Google developer forums for answers whenever he encountered a hurdle in the process, he explained.

-with additional reporting from Focus Taiwan