The two Silicon Valley companies make the world's dominant smartphone operating systems for iPhones and Android devices. The technology will first be available in mid-May as software tools available to contact tracing apps endorsed by public health authorities. However, Apple and Google also plan to build the tracking technology directly into their underlying operating systems in the coming months so that users do not have to download any apps to begin logging nearby phones. Governments worldwide have been scrambling to develop or evaluate software meant to improve the normally labour-intensive process of contact tracing, in which health officials go to recent contacts of an infected person and ask them to self-quarantine or get tested. Several health technology experts have said the involvement of Apple and Google would be a massive boost to their efforts, as contact tracing apps from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and others struggled to make their apps work across competing operating systems.

Source: bd News24 April 10, 2020 16:52 UTC