China Earthquake Administration in Talks With Apple to Add Quake Alerts to iOS

The monitoring and forecasting department of the China Earthquake Administration said the China Earthquake Networks Center is in communication with Apple, aiming to accelerate the integration of earthquake early-warning information into Apple's iOS operating system. The administration's monitoring department said on September 11 that Apple phone users can currently obtain earthquake early-warning information uniformly released by the administration through a WeChat mini-program. Since at least 2025, the China Earthquake Administration has publicly confirmed that it is pushing for earthquake early-warning integration into iOS, but officials have not disclosed how many rounds of talks have been held with Apple, when they took place, or what stage they have reached.

The China Earthquake Administration received a message from a user signed "Mr. Li," asking whether mainland China's national earthquake early-warning system has been connected to the iOS alert mechanism, and, after multiple rounds of consultations between the China Earthquake Administration and Apple China, what stage the system-level iOS earthquake early-warning integration work is at, what the difficulties are, and whether there is a plan for the next stage.

The China Earthquake Administration later characterized this behavior as "unauthorized generation" and "illegal pushing." The Institute of Care-life in Chengdu, Sichuan, disputed this, saying that the "China Earthquake Early Warning Network" was built through its previous cooperation with the China Earthquake Administration, and denying that it had falsely used the name.