Coronavirus: Apple iPhones can track contact without the Covid app

Apple has started allowing its iPhones to perform contact tracing without users having to download the official Covid-19 app.

Alternatively, owners are invited to sign up for a scheme called Exposure Notifications Express (ENE).

This keeps a 14-day log of other phones detected via Bluetooth and provides an alert if one or more users are subsequently diagnosed with the virus.

Your local public health authority will determine what the notification says.

User may be required to download a fully functional app for further instructions.

However, it also gives administrators the option not to develop their own app, in which case the user can be directed to go to a test center or call a hotline for more information.

IPhone owners who fall ill without receiving a warning message can still cause a series of alerts to be sent to others. But since they won't have an app to start the process, it will do so by clicking on a text message that the Public Health Authority sends to their smartphone after a positive diagnosis.

This facility is rolling out as part of Apple's latest update to Apple's mobile operating system, iOS 13.7, which has just been released.

Lower costs

Users can subscribe to ENE via the new exposure notifications option under the iPhone's main settings menu.

However, since it relies on health chiefs providing criteria about which alerts should be generated - including how close two people are together and for how long - it won't work without their participation.

Until administrators decide whether or not to support the initiative, users are asked to download a local app if an app exists as an alternative or told "No exposure notifications are turned on for your public health authority."

To date, more than 20 countries, provinces and other geographies have released apps based on Apple and Google's contact tracing framework. They include:

    Republic of Ireland

    • northern Ireland

    • Germany

    Switzerland

    Japan

    • Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    • Tarek mountain

The NHS Test and Trace service in England is currently experimenting with an application based on the technology giants' API (Application Programming Interface) as well. Scotland plans to launch a product of its own later this month, based on the Republic of Ireland product.

However, only six out of 57 US states have adopted this technology currently. Launching an ENE might encourage more to do so because it could save development time and maintenance costs.

Regardless of how Apple and Google's "decentralized" model is deployed, authorities cannot know which or how many users have received an alert.

Likewise, users are not able to know who caused them to receive a notification.

Additionally, users can undo the new initiative at any time by switching in their settings menu.