Corona tracker app android#

User setup consists of four steps, and the app does not request access to any of the user’s phone data.

Corona tracker app android#

In addition to enabling Bluetooth contact tracing on Apple and Android devices, the app also includes a symptom checker that lets users record how they’re feeling each day and a national overview of how the virus is spread across Ireland. The COVID Tracker Ireland app is the most successfully deployed contact tracing app built on the decentralised model using the joint Apple-Google technology. Within three months of that first phone call from the HSE, the team had a secure, tested, user-friendly, reliable contact tracing app that worked and was ready to be deployed on a national scale. Dublin-based quality assurance firm Expleo worked with the HSE and An Garda Síochána to conduct user testing of the app, focusing especially on testing the Exposure Notification System (ENS) within the Apple-Google solution. Moving as quickly as ever, we redesigned the user onboarding flow and created a new working prototype. The team decided to switch models and secured beta access to the new technology from Apple and Google. Due to be released in May, the joint Apple-Google application programming interface (API) would allow governments and health authorities to build apps according to a decentralised data model and specifically enable Bluetooth proximity detection on locked phones as long as users had Bluetooth turned on. When the team reached out to Apple and Google to try to find a way around the technical issues, we learned the two companies were coming together to create a solution that would address not just the tech but the privacy problems as well. And the prospect of collecting and storing user data, even if it was anonymised, raised too many privacy concerns. The Bluetooth proximity detection feature on certain smartphones would not work if the phones were locked, for example, while in a pocket or handbag. However, the team met with obstacles that could not be resolved, both technical and privacy-related. Like that of so many countries, the initial solution worked on the centralised data model, in which app data was stored in a central database. We relied on the same tools we use every day as a dispersed company, collaborating and communicating using Zoom and Miro, as well as Sketch and InVision for prototyping. The team came together that same afternoon, setting up a virtual command centre and kicking off a fully remote, design-led workshop with the HSE and Department of Health to outline the requirements, scope and functionality of the app.

They wanted to build a contact tracing app for Ireland and had heard we have the capability and expertise to develop one quickly and to the highest quality. The sun was shining the afternoon of Sunday, 22 March, when NearForm got a call from the HSE. So the HSE began looking for a partner to develop a contact tracing app for Ireland, one that would be reliable, secure and easy for the public to use. The use of existing Bluetooth technology in smartphones to support contact tracing - considered one of the most important activities for controlling the spread of coronavirus - emerged as a potentially life-saving option. The challengeĪs the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe and hard-hit countries across Europe took increasingly bold measures to ‘flatten the curve’, the HSE explored new tools and resources to help manage the disease and bolster the health system in Ireland. Additionally, the website hse.ie provides important resource links, information and health advice for the Irish public. Responsible for the provision of public health services for all people living in Ireland, the Health Service Executive manages a varied range of programmes and services across the country, working in close partnership with the Department of Health and other agencies.