Google disables feature after it incorrectly warned millions of people about a storm
Google introduced its At a Glance widget back in 2017 with the launch of the Pixel 2 series smartphones. Since then, it has kept Android users apprised about their local weather conditions. Be it haze or rain or even an expected storm, the widget always kept Android users updated about what they should expect when they step outside their doors. So, it wasn’t entirely surprising when the widget warned people about an impending storm. Except it was.
Google’s At a glance widget recently warned millions of people about an impending storm in the Philippines. While this sounds like an important piece of information that one would want the widget to update people about, but only if you are living in the Philippines or the surrounding areas. But the widget instead of warning the people in and near the Philippines about the storm warned millions of Android users across the globe about it. Android users all across the globe got a public storm warning from PAGASA (the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration), Android Police reported.
While that might have led to momentary panic but thankfully, we are not looking at a global level catastrophe.
What is Google doing about it?
Obviously, a bug in the widget is to be blamed for this erroneous alert and it will take Google some time to fix this bug completely. In the meantime, the company has rolled out an update that disables Severe Weather Alerts for Android users. The publication notes that now on going to the At a Glance settings, users will find that the toggle for severe weather alerts has been disabled. And if you try to flip the settings on, Google will simply flip it back off.
We presume that this has been done to fix the issue temporarily so that the widget doesn’t end up creating such a scare again and a more permanent fix is rolled out for this bug.
The post Google disables feature after it incorrectly warned millions of people about a storm appeared first on BGR India.
