Checked the list on 9to5Mac, but have a question. What is the difference between EN Express and an Apple/Google compatible app?
After researching this a bit, I think “EN Express app in development” is just their shorthand for “the state has said that it is working on an app.” I don’t believe there is an explicit “EN Express” app. But I could be wrong!
Thanks, Adam. I was curious because it surprised me that California doesn’t have a compatible app.
The phrase “EN Express app in development” doesn’t really make sense. From the first paragraph of Apple’s description of Exposure Notification Express: “iOS 13.7 and later can inform people of potential exposure to COVID-19 without a dedicated Exposure Notifications app. This app-less functionality is called Exposure Notifications Express and is only available when a Public Health Authority (PHA) supports it.”
Much as I have issues the Cupertino, I carefully went over their description (from weeks ago) of the API especially as it applies to privacy. Everything seemed very much on the money (I’ll take it on faith they weren’t flat out lying). Soon as I heard the NYS app was out, I hjeaded to the App Store, got it, configured it (was pretty simply to set up I thought).
One cool thing is it gives you a daily picture & a 7 day average of how many tested and how many positive (they generate the percentage for you). Even cooler, it’s not for the whole state but is narrowed down… in my case it’s THE ONE borough in NYC I live in, so it’s reasonably local (the state does track by zip codes). Even so, it would be WAY nice is they tracked by zip code, the state obviously has the data.
Frankly, my phone is more of an emergency contact device that I got because my sister and I were taking care of a very elderly family member, and may have need to communicate in all circumstances. Came in hand maybe half a dozen times in 2-3 years. So now it mostly sits at home and gets used once in a blue moon if my cable service goes on the fritz (got VOIP through them). NOW I gotta try and aways strap it in whenever I go outside.
HOWEVER, it is only really useful if everyone got it, set it up, had it always on them AND reported if they tested positive. With the anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers, believers being told the virus is “deep state, democratic party hoax,” or that it’s no big deal, who hear about 210,000 dead and shrug and intone “fake news,” we just do not and never really could have the kind of critical mass that this tech NEEDS in order to be effective. Back in Feb/Mar I read about the success with contact tracing and kinda reasoned that WOULD be an effective way to keep it at bay. Some idiot here made it a political issue and suckered in way too many people. I have little skin in the game as I am an “old f**k” as George Carlin once said, but I get riled up because I have a LOT of friends who have children down to 2-3-4 years old. If everyone adopted this tech, we at least stand a chance at NOT seeing 3-400K dad before we look around.
Oh, trust me, I drag my phone around whenever I leave the front door. It stands ready to say hello to any other iOS device using it.
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Thanks for installing the app and taking your phone with you when you go out!
I think all we can do is encourage our friends and relatives to use it, and emphasize that it’s just one more tool in the arsenal that society is gradually building up against the coronavirus. No one thing will solve the fix we’ve ended up in, but cooperation in many different ways will beat it in the end.
I’m trying, sent the link to everyone I know who runs iOS… my bet is most of them will install. AND this IS a double edged sword… I’ll be happy to receive a notification, AND I am a triple threat for death, “old f**k,” nearly kicked it from a pulmonary embolism last fall, AND 3 months since my chest was cracked open.!
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I have a question about these COVID Alert apps. Do you need to be a resident of a state to use the app from that state? If you are visiting someone in another state that has an app, can you and does it make sense to download and setup the app while you’re visiting? If you are regularly in two different states, can you have two versions of the app active at once?
Why not? There is no question about your residence, the notifications if any will be sent to you via the phone. I installed it while (now) in Netherlands, before returning to NY State in a month, there was no restriction. If someone else here has installed the NY app I think it would track the contact. It uses bluetooth (local) not GPS. The info on infections etc. (very nice, as Adam says) is of course NY specific to its counties.
If they work the way the Virginia app does (and I assume everything using the Apple or Google APIs do), the answer is “yes, but…”
Anybody can run the app. It will generate random IDs for you and exchange those IDs (via Bluetooth) with anybody you come near, alerting you if you were near someone reported as having had a positive test.
But each state runs its own reporting system. You need a code from the state that issued the app in order to report yourself as having had a positive test. If you get tested in another state, then it may be difficult or impossible to get that code.
It’s also unclear to me if the database of IDs associated with positive tests is global or local to each state. If it’s local, then the New York app isn’t going to alert you if you came close to someone who tested positive but reported his diagnosis with another state’s app.
In general, if you want to use a contact tracing app, you really should use the app issued by the state where you live. If you want to install apps from other states as well, it should work, but I don’t think it will be useful except when you’re traveling to those states.
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There is an effort by the Association of Public Health Laboratories to facilitate interoperability of the system between states.
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It looks like the iPhone only lets you have one region active at a time…but what happens if I live in an area that borders two or three states?
If I have both the NY and NJ apps, with the NJ app being active - will I get a notification if someone I’ve been around enters a positive code in NY?
Arizona has an app available, but it is still a work in progress. They have full functionality for two of the universities (UA and NAU) but do not have reporting capability for the rest of the state yet.
I am impressed with the additional detail that the NY version provides and hope it becomes common across all the states (along with interoperability)
I can envision the app being used (along with a temperature measurement) for admittance to group events as an alternative to a COVID-19 antigen test.
Here is what I would like to see added to the Arizona app.
- I would like a count of other (non-positive) users I have been close to. This would tell me the app is working and that other users in my vicinity are using the app. It would also tend to indicate that the user has been taking their phone with them so it can record possible exposure (not just leaving it at home on their desk).
- I would like a real time date and time displayed on the page that shows no significant exposure (this would reduce the likelihood of people saving a screenshot and using that for admittance)
- I would like it set up for near field communication of your exposure level.
Regrettably I do not see or expect widespread acceptance of this technology. Hence my approach of getting into an event is take a 15 min COVID test (for an additional fee) or show the app as a motivator.
I have been sharing the app availability to others with mixed reactions from interest, to I have it but I didn’t turn it on, to active avoidance of me like I was infected. This tells me there is a lot of effective communication needed to make people aware of the technology and to use it.
I hope this will become an effective tool in our effort to combat COVID.
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Alas, I don’t think this would work. Aside from the fact that temperature checks are largely worthless, the app’s alerts wouldn’t necessarily happen in time. For instance, let’s say you’re exposed to someone who’s infectious and is also using the app. It might take several more days for them to show symptoms (if they ever do) and get tested, unless they’re a student at a place like Cornell that’s doing twice-weekly surveillance testing (extremely successfully). Even if they do show symptoms, get tested, and report to the app, such that it could notify you, it could easily be several days after you had contracted COVID-19 (again, possibly with no symptoms).
The utility of the alerts is not that their lack gives you an all-clear, but that if you do get one, you know to go get tested right away.
I think that’s a great suggestion. It encourages use and gives you feedback that it would alert you if there was a problem.
I really like reporting to the COVID Alert NY app that I’m feeling well every day. 
I haven’t gotten any pushback from anyone I’ve told about it, but very few people have known about it or understood how it worked.
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Our old friend Rob Pegoraro wrote about this for USA Today recently. Adoption is low. Which I find frustrating given the privacy-abusing crud that it seems everyone will install without a thought. 
I’ve had Pennsylvania’s app installed and activated since it came out. It provides a quick way of seeing how things are progressing in PA on a county by county basis. I’ve also had the NOVID app installed, but I’m apparently the only one in the 168 group of ZIP codes, so of course I’ve never seen an interaction. I got my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine a week ago, so next week I might just turn COVID tracking off.
In California, I haven’t seen any sort of advertising about exposure notification, so I’m not surprised the adoption rate is so low. I wonder how many people even know about it.
Fair point. The only reason I heard about it was because the UC system was used as a testbed during development so we got roped in early to serve as guinea pigs. 
There’s covid19.ca.gov, but surprisingly you have to explore the site map there to even find a link to CAnotify.ca.gov which advertises it.
Agreed. New York pushed the COVID Alert NY app briefly. I saw it mentioned just five times in the New York briefing email messages that the Cuomo administration sends out every day, and only in October and early November. Silence since then.