Hacker News Reader

Comment by iamben | Hacker News Reader

There's already a "COVID-19 Exposure Notification" in the Settings>Google menu on my Android. AFAIK the same exists on Apple. I'm at a loss as to why they don't just say in the daily briefing "turn it on please". Develop what you want in the meantime, but it'd go a long way towards something.

EDIT: missed it had to be turned on... Thanks for the replies. Fingers crossed we get something that uses it ASAP.

View on HN

I think that's just the UI to enable the bare API, you still need an app that uses that API?

Kind of like enabling location won't give you a map, you still need a map app to use that location. (For example).

That said, the efforts of other countries shows had they gone with that API in the first place they would perhaps have something running by now, rather than insisting on going their own way because they wanted the data centralised.

This is just a way of knowing whether your phone has the new API's available, I believe. It still prompts you to install a local government app.

Because the NHS must write an app to consume this. It's not able to do anything on its own.

The NHS could take and rebrand the open-source German-developed app. Unfortunately solutions like this are presumably quite politically unpalatable to the present government.

Makes it harder to funnel our money to their mates.

They'd still need to tie it into their coronavirus testing program somehow, and that's probably the hardest part anyway.

Because the worflkflow that one country’s screening and tracking system follows is clearly the same as another.

There's nothing to turn on if you don't have a "participating app".

I did not know this. As a matter of fact, I still do not know why Google isn't making this more known. I have not received any push notification or anything of the sort !

They haven't publicized it because it doesn't actually do anything until you have an app that makes use of the API. If it's not turned on, the app will prompt you to turn it on when you install it.

I live in germany, where the app is already released -- the settings panel shows a list of installed apps that use the API, but the app is responsible for the synchronization of the randomIDs with the server, notifications, etc.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com