15 April 2020

Apple and Google are teaming up to fight Covid-19 with contact tracing

By Amrita Khalid

Apple and Google are teaming up to allow contact tracing on many of the world’s smartphones. The partnership, which the companies announced today, will allow an estimated 3 billion people to opt in to location tracking through Bluetooth on their smartphones for the purposes of combating the Covid-19 pandemic.

Users will be able to receive alerts if they came into contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19. The collaboration will require the world’s two biggest mobile operating systems, Android and iOS, to work together in a way that is unprecedented.

Both companies wrote in nearly identical announcements published on their respective websites:

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