GeoShake T1 now works with Google Home

GeoShake is now a certified Google Home integration. Here is what that means, what it does not mean, and how to connect a T1 to Google Home, Home Assistant or Smart Life in about five minutes.

A GeoShake T1 has always done one job well: it feels the ground where it sits and reports what it feels to the network. Until now, what the network concluded stayed on the map and in the app. From today it can also reach the room you are in.

GeoShake has passed Google's certification for Works with Google Home. Link your GeoShake account in the Google Home app and an "Earthquake" sensor appears next to your lights and speakers. Home Assistant users get the same signal through HACS, and Smart Life users in Central Europe can pair the T1 directly. Nothing new to buy, no hub, no subscription.

What actually happens

The network does not react to a single sensor. It waits until three or more GeoShake stations agree that the same shaking is real. That agreement is what we call a confirmed event. Only then does the network publish it, and only then does your home hear about it.

The order of events is simple:

1. Stations near the earthquake feel the shaking and report it.
2. The network compares the reports. Three or more matching stations turn a set of reports into one confirmed event.
3. The event is checked against your home. If it is within 300 km, your smart home receives it.
4. Your routines run: the lights come on, a speaker says what happened, cameras start recording.

Step 3 is where the two paths differ, so it is worth being precise. In Google Home, "your home" is the location of the T1 registered to your account; an account with no T1 hears every confirmed event on the network. In Home Assistant, the radius is measured from the home location you set in Home Assistant itself, so it works even if you do not own a sensor.

Three ways in

Google Home. Open the Google Home app, tap Add, choose Works with Google Home, search for GeoShake and sign in with your GeoShake account. A sensor named Earthquake appears. Build a routine that starts when Earthquake turns on. The sensor switches itself off again two minutes later, so the next event starts clean.

Home Assistant. Add the GeoShake integration through HACS (custom repository: github.com/GeoShake/geoshake-homeassistant), then sign in with your GeoShake email and password. If you created your account with Google or Apple, paste the API key from my.geoshake.org into the password field instead. Version 0.3.0 sets the alert radius to 300 km from your Home Assistant home location; you can change it under Options.

Smart Life. If your Smart Life account lives in Tuya's Central Europe data centre (Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Austria and the rest of Europe), open my.geoshake.org, choose your T1 and scan the QR code with Smart Life. Your T1 appears as a device you can use in Tap-to-Run scenes. Accounts in other regions see a short request form instead of a QR code.

Step-by-step guides for all three live at geoshake.org/integrations.

Why density is the whole story

A confirmed event needs three stations close enough to feel the same earthquake. That is a deliberate choice: one sensor's mistake never becomes an event. It is also why the first confirmed events will come from the places where GeoShake owners live close together.

Right now the densest part of the network is Puerto Rico, with twelve stations. If you are there, your home is already inside the first region likely to be told. Everywhere else, every new station shortens the wait: each T1 that comes online is one third of a confirmation for its neighbours.

That is the honest version of "your home is now on the network". The plumbing is finished and certified. How often it carries something depends on how many of us are listening.

What to automate

Keep it to things that help in the seconds after a confirmed event and can do no harm if they run by mistake:

• Turn on the hallway and bedroom lights at full brightness.
• Have a speaker announce: "Earthquake confirmed by the GeoShake network. Take cover."
• Start recording on indoor cameras and save the clip.
• Send a notification to everyone in the household.

We do not recommend automating anything that changes the physical state of your home, and the integration cannot be used to publish anything back to the network. Both Home Assistant and Google Home only listen.

What it is, and what it is not

The signal your home receives is a confirmation, produced after stations have already felt shaking. It is a fast, honest "this is real" from your neighbours' sensors, not a forecast. Automations can be delayed by your internet connection or by the platform, and they can fail to run. For official guidance during an earthquake, rely on your national authority and on the alerts in the GeoShake app.

Five minutes, tonight

If you own a T1, open the Google Home app tonight and link your account. If you run Home Assistant, install version 0.3.0. Then tell us what you built: reply to any GeoShake email or write to info@geoshake.org. The best routines will end up in the guide.

Your station has been listening for months. Now the rest of the house can too.