Recently, Apple and Google announced that they have partnered to offer secure and private way of coronavirus contact tracing implementation on iOS and Android. For Apple, the anonymous COVID-19 contact tracing via Bluetooth will become available with iOS 13.5 on iPhone. However, the software isn’t available publicly yet.
The company is calling this feature “Exposure Notifications” and is turned off at the system level by default. You’ll have to download an app from your local health authority that will require your explicit permission to use anonymous Bluetooth data for it to work.
How to turn on/off COVID-19 contact tracing on iOS
- First of all, make sure that you are using iOS 13.5 and later
- Then, go to Settings on your iPhone
- Swipe down and tap Privacy
- Now choose Health
- Tap COVID-19 Exposure Logging at the top
- To toggle the option on or off, you will need an authorized
- Using this, you can also delete the exposure logs manually at any time
Once the contact-tracing feature is enable on your iPhone, the device will exchange random IDs other devices via Bluetooth. It will enable an app to alert you if you may have been exposed to COVID-19. If you have been exposed, you can share your device’s random IDs with the authorized app to notify others anonymously.
Apple and Google both have confirmed that phase two of the contact tracing software will allow it to work without a third-party health authority app. However, that new feature isn’t expected to be available until later this year.
