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Over a million people in England and Wales have downloaded the coronavirus contact tracing app within the initial release date, but many are already reporting problems.
After a delayed start in May, the U.K. has released the National Health Service (NHS) COVID-19 app in England and Wales, the last two regions to receive access to the app, according to Tech Crunch.
The second trial of the COVID-19 contact tracing app began in mid-August, after delays and concerns about privacy.
Northern Ireland and Scotland launched their own contact tracing app earlier this year in an effort to decrease exposure to the virus.
All three of the contact tracing apps used in the U.K. are designed to use smartphones’ Bluetooth to calculate the proximity of others’ devices and therefore produce alerts when coronavirus-positive users have been nearby.
But the contact tracing app may not be flawless just yet.
Some of the problems with the NHS COVID-19 app have come as a surprise as users get acquainted with the newly launched app, according to The Guardian. Hundreds of thousands of Android and iPhone users downloaded the app within hours of its availability, but accessing the contact tracing app became a problem.
Many Android users accidentally installed the wrong version of the app, and instead downloaded the Newham, east London, and the Isle of Wight trial version. When users began trying to use the app, they quickly became frustrated, and that led to an eruption of one-star reviews.
iPhone users also hit a snag.
The contact tracing app is linked on the App Store’s home page, but users who searched for “NHS COVID 19” were getting a result for New Zealand’s app instead, The Guardian reported. In the App Store, users in the U.K. should search for “NHS COVID-19” — adding the hyphen should help them find the British version.
In addition, people with phones from 2018 or older were experiencing a lack of functionality with the NHS COVID-19 app: It simply did not work at all.
The new version of the contact tracing app features a new structure, according to Tech Crunch.
The Guardian has reported that the app’s structure is restricted in older phones. Anyone with an iPhone 6 or older — or older Androids — will not be able to use the contact tracing app.
Anyone 16 and older is recommended to install the contact tracing app, according to the BBC.
For those who have downloaded and are able to use the app, the NHS COVID-19 app advises users to quarantine for 14 days if the app encounters someone coronavirus-positive nearby.
The app also features a check-in scanner to use at venues, and if the user visited a location that was found to be a hotspot, they will receive an alert, the BBC reported.
In the simplest terms, the NHS COVID-19 app exchanges ephemeral IDs with nearby devices, and the information is stored on the app. If a person tests positive for coronavirus, the system is notified and will transmit a notice to all the IDs that came into close proximity.
The exposed IDs are decentralised, meaning this process is done locally and is meant to maintain privacy for users. The first contact tracing app was not decentralised and caused a backlash over privacy concerns.
In June, there were concerns about the reliability of the NHS COVID-19 app, but Health Secretary Matt Hancock stated that its reliability was satisfactory.
“What we know for absolute sure is that the app will not tell you to self isolate because you’ve been in close contact with someone unless you have been in close contact,” Hancock said, according to Tech Crunch. “The accuracy with which it does that is increasing all of the time — and we’ve been working very closely with Apple and with Google who’ve done a great job in working to make this happen and to ensure that accuracy is constantly improved.”
Have you downloaded the contact tracing app? Did you encounter any problems, or has the NHS COVID-19 app worked for you? Share your experience in the comments.
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