The Government’s coronavirus app, CovidSafe, has now been downloaded more than a million times. While any app developer would love to reach an impressive number in 24 hours, there’s still much work to be done.
For the app to be really effective in automating contact tracing and ensuring that as a society we have Coronavirus under control, the Government would like to see at least 40% of Australians using it.
The ABS Population clock has Australia’s population at 25,670,390 at the time of writing. This means a 40% adoption rate would require 10,268,156 would need to install and use the app. This means we’re about 1/10th completed on the mission, not bad in 24hrs, but we need to keep at it.
Naturally there’s a decent percentage of that number made up of children and elderly that don’t have smartphones, leaving the total possible number of installs much lower.
All things aside, the app is really important in Australia’s ability to return to a more normal life and I strongly encourage you to install and use it.
CovidSafe on Android works pretty simply, just install it, go through the signup process and the app runs in the background, with a perminant notification to let you know it’s still running. On my S10+ the app doesn’t even appear in the app switcher to close it out.
On iOS things are a little different. After launching and running the app, you go through the signup process and then can simply switch away to another app. Some users however, like to force close apps regularly, which is often a result of apps which historically have consumed resources while running in the background. If you do close out the CovidSafe app, it won’t be able to do the necessary Bluetooth handshakes to work as intended, so you’ll need to re-launch the app.
It’s also important to check the app is running if you restart your device.
Download the app now on Android and iOS, or go to the website for more information.
Thanks Jason! And no thanks to Barnaby! What a fool! There is ZERO reason to be concerned, the data collected is no intrusion of privacy and there is nothing to fear. Let’s hope we get to way over 40%- this could potentially help another spike and prevent further lock-downs. Also Barnaby said it won’t save lives, which is completely wrong. It does indeed have the potential to save lives, by quickly identifying an outbreak and preventing further spread.
Hi Jason,
Thanks for the article. A good read. All the physicians at work have the app already (as do I).
It would be good to have a download counter for the COVIDsafe app – this way more people are likely to sign up for it (if they know they are in a big group, it’s less threatening to download something like this).
Regards
Tony B
I’ve downloaded it several times coz it won’t accept my phone number…….wonder how many others same?