Every country has been working with developers to build their own COVID-19 contact tracing application. But the issue with most of these apps will be the technical glitches. One thing is for certain, time is of the essence when we are talking about the COVID-19 spread. There is no time to keep developing the app for the future when all the damage will be done now. That is why most of the countries are going with the Apple-Google APIs (application program interface) so that they don’t have to face technical glitches. Indian smartphone users now (both iOS and Android) will notice a new COVID-19 feature in their devices. Here is all that you should know about it.
How Do You Access It?
First of all, the new feature will show up on the Android devices of companies — Samsung, OnePlus, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, among some others. Just go to the Settings > tap on Google and the first option on your screen will be ‘COVID19 Exposure Notifications’. For the iOS users, go to Settings > Privacy > Health and the first option on the screen will be ‘COVID19 Exposure Logging’.
When Will it Be Accessible?
For now, the new feature that you see will remain inaccessible because it needs an app to support it. According to a report from Times of India, the tech giants did approach the central government to allow them to link this feature to Aarogya Setu app. The Aarogya Setu app has its own API and that is why the government hasn’t shown any interest in the offer made by the tech giants. So only time will tell if this feature will be made accessible at all.
Privacy Concerns
If there is a public health authority app installed in the device, then the user will have the option to enable the Exposure Notifications. If the user comes near or in contact with a person who has been exposed to COVID19, he/she will have an option to choose to share a random ID using the app. The users movements are not tracked in any way and the random ID will change in every 15-20 minutes.
