wusa9.com The idea is to help national governments roll out apps for so-called coronavirus ‘contact tracing’ that will run on iPhones and Android phones alike.
Google and Apple announced a major partnership on Friday that will leverage smartphone technology to help governments and health agencies reduce the spread of COVID-19.
The two companies say they will be adding software to phones that make it easier to use Bluetooth wireless technology to track down people for who may have been infected by coronavirus carriers.
The idea is to help national governments roll out apps for so-called “contact tracing” that will run on iPhones and Android phones alike.
The technology works by harnessing short-range Bluetooth signals. Using the Apple-Google technology, contact-tracing apps would gather a record of other phones with which they came into close proximity. Such data can be used to alert others who might have been infected by known carriers of the novel coronavirus, although only in cases where the phones’ owners have installed the apps and agreed to share data with public-health authorities.
