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Apple and Google have added a new feature to their smartphone operating systems to allow health authorities to track contacts to contain the spread of the coronavirus without the need for a dedicated app. In iOS, the iPhone operating system, the novelty has been available since yesterday thanks to the update to version 13.7, while for Android smartphones we will have to wait for the updates that Google will make available for editions from 6 onwards. next weeks.
The new system should make it easier to track any exposure to the coronavirus, but it will not replace existing apps like Immuni in Italy. Our country was one of the first to develop a dedicated application, based on the resources made available by Apple and Google, and will continue to use Immuni to detect and track any exposure: therefore, the application will continue to be available on the AppStore and Google Play. and download are recommended by the Ministry of Health and other health institutions.
Last April, in the most critical phase of the pandemic in several countries, Apple and Google announced an unusual and rare collaboration to create a shared contact tracing system capable of making iPhones communicate with each other and Android smartphones. The ambitious project was carried out quickly by offering governments tools and resources to create their own applications capable of providing notifications to users in the event of prolonged contact with an infected person (usually more than 15 minutes).
Since then, the system, based on Bluetooth and that we have described more extensively here, has made possible the birth of some applications managed at national level by governments, such as Immuni in Italy. However, it is clear that the solution only works if it is used on an adequate number of smartphones, and it is a problem that applications from different countries do not communicate with each other; Not to mention that many governments struggle to develop their own applications based on the system provided by Apple and Google, due to lack of resources or sufficient infrastructure.
In the United States, these problems have been compounded by the difficulty of achieving good coordination between different state entities, so only 6 out of 50 states have developed their own contact tracing application. Similar issues have occurred in other federally organized nations, rendering smartphone contact tracing solutions of little use.
For this reason, Apple and Google have worked on an update of the system, which allows them to manage the detection of any exposure to the coronavirus without having to produce an application from scratch based on the resources provided by their operating systems. Each user can decide whether or not to activate the tracking function through the iOS operating system or an application developed directly by Google on Android. However, the health authorities of individual countries will need to provide information on what to do if an exposure is detected, so that it can be shown to interested users.
The possibility of using the system without having to produce a dedicated application should help to spread the solution offered by Apple and Google, improving the quality of contact tracking and also making it possible to detect exposures between different countries or states of a country. same federation as in the case of the United States. And the use of the new update among Americans should give some indication in the coming months about the effectiveness of the solution proposed by Apple and Google.
Although the basic idea is the same, Apple and Google have chosen slightly different paths due to differences in their operating systems. In Apple’s case, the entire solution is managed directly within iOS and without the need to download an application. On Android, on the other hand, an intermediate step is foreseen: Google will create, with the permission of the health authorities of individual countries, an application that will be added to your smartphone via the Google Play store to activate the new option.
Yesterday in the US, we announced Exposure Notifications Express, a system that makes it easy for health authorities to create a contact tracking app. For countries that already have an app, like Italy with Immuni, there will be no changes.
– Google Italy (@googleitalia) September 2, 2020
The news will not affect countries where contact tracking apps are already available, such as Immuni in Italy. Immuni will continue to work as usual, will remain free and can be downloaded on iPhones and Android smartphones from the App Store for iOS and from Google Play for those who use phones with the Google operating system.
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