Apple and Google release test version of coronavirus tracing software
▻https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/29/apple-and-google-release-test-version-of-coronavirus-tracing-software.html
Key Points
Apple and Google released a beta version of their coronavirus tracing software on Wednesday.
The APIs are included in the beta versions of iOS and Android used by software developers.
Now it’s up to governments around the world to decide whether they’ll choose the Apple and Google approach, which has privacy and usability benefits, or whether they will create their own apps using their own technology to empower their public health departments with additional data.
Now it’s up to governments around the world to decide whether they’ll choose the Apple and Google approach or create their own apps using their own technology to empower their public health departments with additional data. But apps that don’t use the Apple-Google technology could run into limitations, including restrictions on Apple iPhones that prevent Bluetooth apps from running in the background, meaning that users would have to keep them on their phone screens at all times for the contact tracing to work.
Germany over the weekend said that its national app would use the Apple and Google protocol. The U.K.’s National Health Service said that its app would be ready for a trial in three weeks, and it does not use the Apple-Google approach. Australia also has eschewed the Apple-Google APIs for an app based on Singapore’s app, COVIDsafe. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison tweeted on Monday that COVIDsafe has already garnered 2 million downloads.
The two tech giants first announced that they teamed up in March to build APIs directly into iOS and Android to slow the spread of coronavirus. The contact tracing partnership between Apple and Google was driven by a few employees at first and has developed at a speed highly unusual for Apple, CNBC previously reported.