What you need to know
- Google's At A Glance widget sent out a weird alert to global users about a storm in the Philippines.
- The storm alert is highly likely caused by a glitch.
- A Category 5 storm is currently ravaging the eastern and central parts of the southeast Asian country.
If you woke up to a rather strange warning from your Google Pixel's At A Glance widget alerting you to a storm that's nowhere near your location, you're not alone.
As super typhoon "Odette" (international name: Rai) continues to slam the eastern and central parts of the Philippines, some Google Pixel owners from various parts of the world have received an odd storm alert. The warning was clearly sent out by accident via the At A Glance widget.
It came from PAGASA (Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration), and it is likely to have caused panic among those who saw it on their phone screens. Some users from California, Canada, the United Kingdom, Denmark, and other parts of the United States, for example, have taken to Reddit to report the incident. Some received the alert via the Google Pixel 6 Pro while others saw it on their Pixel 3 XL.
Fortunately for the people in these countries, no global-scale storm appears to be brewing at present. However, for those living in the Philippines, the Category 5 typhoon is wreaking havoc on large swaths of cities and provinces in the country's central region, sending approximately 100,000 people to evacuation centers (via Reuters).
Without a doubt, Google's At A Glance widget is a useful feature that provides quick information about important events such as a storm, sent via Google's best Android phones. However, the alert is clearly intended for residents of the Philippines and could have been caused by a harmless glitch.
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