Coronavirus Australia: tech teething issues but downloads run hot

The COVIDSafe contact-tracing app is likely to face changes to address Bluetooth issues and an awkward user experience on iPhones.

The new COVIDSafe app. Picture: AFP.

The government’s COVIDSafe contact-tracing app is likely to face changes to address Bluetooth issues and an awkward user experience on iPhones.

iPhone users are being encouraged to run the app in the foreground so it works at its best.

The app has got off to a promising start, with more than two million downloads.

It uses Bluetooth to exchange encrypted IDs of other phones less than 1.5m away for a minimum 15 minutes. Contact tracers can call a user’s contacts if they later test positive.

There are some ongoing operation issues. The most significant is that iPhone users must keep the app loaded at all times so that it can access the phone’s Bluetooth signal. COVIDSafe could miss collecting data should a user forget to open it or inadvertently close it.

There has been conflicting information on this with health officials most recently saying that on iPhones, you need to keep the app in the foreground with Bluetooth switched on for it to work optimally. A notification sent to users today says that power saving mode should be switched on. It’s unclear whether the app collects Bluetooth signals with the phone locked.

If this is confusing to the tech community, it must be baffling to everyday users.

This isn’t an issue with Android phones, where security permissions are different.

The fact users also are required to have Bluetooth running at all times, has raised concerns about the app draining a phone’s battery. The app scans for other Bluetooth devices around every minute.

Meanwhile, Health Department chief information officer Daniel Keys said the department would be in contact with Apple and Google, which are developing changes to their operating systems to address issues such as these. “We're working with Apple and Google on their functionality to ensure that it can be consumed by the app to improve the app's performance,” he said.

The tech rivals this month joined forces to develop their own contact-tracing systems which they will make available in all countries.

The federal government isn’t partnering with Apple and Google but it might adopt some features being baked into operating system upgrades to be rolled out.

When the two companies announced the initiative, the government was already moving to adapt open-source code made available by Singapore’s TraceTogether contact-tracing app.

Mr Keys said the government didn’t want to wait for Apple and Google’s system to be ready which was “sort of late May”. “So we moved forward to provide a capability … we can then build on (it) when the Apple and Google functionality comes in.

“I'd also like to add that the capability that's being built into their operating systems will only be available to those people who upgrade. Now, for some people the phones will not handle an upgrade, so we need to cater for a diverse range of users out there and provide solutions for as many people as possible.”

Some installations haven’t gone to plan. Some people say said their phone’s operating system will not run the app. Several have complained about the app rejecting their phone number when they enter it during installation. One couple said they could only register one phone from their shared telco plan. Some people simply don’t have phones. A backpacker visiting Australia complained that the app wasn’t available from his phone’s overseas app store, but he was keen to support the country’s initiative while here.

Mr Keys said users should not experience a significant battery drain running COVIDSafe. He said the app used only marginally more battery than normal, where phone users already had Bluetooth permanently on. It would use no more than the extra battery drain from apps such as Spotify.

He said the app ran operated better in the foreground. “For those people who- it does slip into the background, we know that the performance is better if it comes to the foreground of all the apps that you're running.”

In Singapore, the developers of TraceTogether also assured users that the app would only marginally impact battery life but responses were mixed. “Despite the developer saying battery usage will be ‘marginally’ higher, my personal experience says otherwise,” said one reviewer.

We are yet to see the impact locally.

Chief Health Officer Brendan Murphy defended the government’s decision to limit the collection of data from the app to encounters of 15 minutes or more, saying health workers could be inundated with phone numbers if data was collected from everyone a person was in contact with.

He said people were at most risk from those they had lengthy exposure to. “We've seen around the world, that the sort of level of time in a contact presents a much, much higher risk than just brushing past someone in the corridor ... we don't want to give the contact tracers a list of a thousand phone numbers when there are 25 of them that are much more relevant in terms of potential contact. So those decisions are made on the best available epidemiological advice at the time.”