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(Pocket-lint) – Three months into the pandemic, Apple and Google introduced a COVID-19 contact tracing technology called the “Exposure Notification” system. Here’s how it works on iPhone and Android.
What are Exposure Notifications?
Contact tracing is crucial to containing the spread of the COVID-19 virus. So, Apple and Google worked together on a technology that allows your local health authority to automatically send you a notification if you’ve been in proximity to a person who is diagnosed with COVID-19. Through Exposure Notifications on your iPhone or Android phone, contact tracing apps from around the globe can send notifications as well as provide recommendations on what steps to take next if you’ve been exposed.
You also have to choose to use the Exposure Notification system and share your data. Apple, Google, nor no other users can see your identity. Only you and your health authority know if you report having COVID-19 or have been exposed to someone who has reported having COVID-19.
How do Exposure Notifications work?
The Exposure Notifications System will generate a random ID for your device that changes every 10 to 20 minutes. Your phone and the phones around you will automatically exchange these random keys via Bluetooth. You don’t need to do anything for this process to happen. Your phone will check all the random keys associated with positive COVID-19 cases.
If there’s a match, you will receive a COVID-19 exposure notification.
Government public health authorities determine which factors suggest an exposure. If you have come in contact with someone who reports themself as having COVID-19, Apple and Google’s Exposure Notification system may share certain information to help them determine whether the contact meets the criteria for exposure, including the day the contact happened, how long the contact lasted, and the Bluetooth signal strength of that contact. The Exposure Notifications system does not use your location.
How to check Exposure Notifications on iPhone
If you have an iPhone, you need to opt-in to Exposure Notifications. You can do so in the Settings app.
If you’re worried you’ve missed a notification or should have received one, you can manually check for them on your iPhone by following these steps:
- Open the Settings app.
- Scroll down and tap Exposure Notifications.
- Tap View Exposures in App at the top.
This will send you to the app that your local health authority is using to push out Exposure Notifications. All these apps have different interfaces. And some US states and countries use an Exposure Notification “Express” system rather than an app. In those situations, you can check your status by following the first two steps above. You won’t be directed to an app, but instead, an “Exposure Check Status” that will let you know if you’ve been exposed. To see which your country, state, or local health authority uses, go here.
How to check Exposure Notifications on Android
On Android, you need to find an app for your area, if available, on Google Play Store. For instance, New York State uses the COVID Alert NY app, and Nevada State uses the Nevada COVID Trace app. Android users will also receive a notification from the Google Play Store if their state has made Exposure Notifications available.
Want to know more?
Watch the video above and see these resources below from Google and Apple to learn more about Exposure Notifications:
Writing by Maggie Tillman.
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