Some status updates are more important than others.
With that in mind, Facebook on Wednesday announced Safety Check, a new feature that lets friends and family know you're safe after a natural disaster has occurred. When such an event transpires, Facebook will send you a message asking if you're OK.
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If you're OK, you can select a message saying "I'm safe."
Facebook determines your city by your profile. If it gets the city wrong, you can mark that you're outside the affected area.
In a blog post announcing the feature, Facebook cited the 2011 Japanese earthquake as inspiration for the new safety feature. Facebook engineers in Japan created a disaster message board, which morphed into Safety Check.
Facebook's not the only company to consider such a measure. In 2012, Google launched Public Alerts for natural disasters in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.
The video below explains the feature further: