The government really wants you to download COVIDSafe, its new coronavirus tracing app. Like really. The message is simple: if enough people install the app, restrictions will ease.
The prospect of downloading an app to reopen the country sure is alluring, but linking looser restrictions to app installs is problematic for one big reason: COVIDSafe doesn't work as intended on iPhone. Over 50% of Australia's smartphone touting population use iPhones, which means there are a whole lot of devices that can't reliably run the app.
COVIDSafe is an app designed to keep a record of anyone you've been in close contact with, provided they've also got it installed on their. In the event that someone using the app tests positive to the virus, COVIDSafe can be used to provide health authorities with an understanding of who else may at risk, and as such, minimise the spread.
Ideally, COVIDSafe should run in the background of your phone, so you can keep using your phone for whatever it is you use it for. That's how it works on Android. However, questions have been raised about COVIDSafe's effectiveness when run on an iPhone, as Apple's developer rules prevent third-party apps from broadcasting Bluetooth signals in the background. As such, COVIDSafe must be open at all times in order to be most effective on an iPhone.
While COVIDSafe can technically work in the background on an iPhone, it loses functionality. In his testing, mobile developer Richard Nelson found COVIDSafe does not scan for other devices when it isn't active. However, according to Nelson, it will still broadcast a signal that another iOS device running COVIDSafe in the foreground will still be able to pick it up and log entries on both devices. An iPhone won't scan for other devices when locked, either.
Fellow technology journalist Peter Wells found similar in his testing, and says COVIDSafe "only works in the background one way on iPhones". He says that if COVIDSafe is running in the background, it will no longer receive Bluetooth signals from other iPhones, and believes it won't receive Bluetooth signals from Android devices either.
This means that if two iPhones are near one enough, by only running COVIDSafe in the background, they'll be invisible to one another. There won't be any record of the interaction, defeating the point of the app.
In addition, iOS will eventually terminate any app that has been running in the background for too long in addition to free up system resources. This means COVIDSafe on an iPhone will eventually stop broadcasting all together, and you won't necessarily know when.
The solution to this might seem like "just keep the app open", but it's not quite that simple. For one, it's counter-intuitive - it's a huge imposition to place on the end user, especially given a phone still needs to be unlocked and the screen needs to be on. And even then, you're relying on your iPhone to not accidentally lock itself in your bag or pocket.
It also stops you from you using your phone for phone things. The government says the app is only looking for close contacts - other users who have been within 1.5m you for 15 minutes or longer - but it's not quite clear whether leaving COVIDSafe and reopening it would reset the timer. Answering a phone call or replying to a message could potentially be enough to interrupt the app and prevent a log from being made.
This is compounded by the fact the government has yet to release COVIDSafe's source code, so we can't definitively be sure as to how exactly it works, and it isn't being overly forthcoming with regards to answers. When I asked the Digital Transformation Agency for clarification as to how COVIDSafe works on iPhone, the department provided the following statement:
"The app runs either in the foreground or background. The foreground refers to when the phone is unlocked and the app is open on the screen. The background refers to when you switch from using the app to another app or when the phone is locked."
That's super helpful.
Apple, in partnership with Google, is working on a framework that would allow COVID-19 tracing apps to collect Bluetooth information in the background and address the current issues with COVIDSafe on iPhone, although it is unclear on if or when this will be implemented.
A Digital Transformation Agency spokesperson told us "the Government will continue to work with Apple and Google to look for any opportunities to enhance the performance of COVIDSafe".
There are, of course, other issues with COVIDSafe. You can't register for the app with an international number. Australians living in remote and rural parts of the country have had issues signing up due to a lack of coverage. The app is only available in English. All of these are barriers to entry that can limit adoption, and should be addressed.
Even before the app's launch, the government has tied app installs to the loosening of restrictions, and the rhetoric has only ramped up over the last week. Scott Morrison has liked the app to sunscreen, and even floated the prospect reopening venues like pubs if enough of us install COVIDSafe.
"That is Australia's ticket to a COVID-safe Australia where we can go about doing the things we love doing once again," said Morrison last week.
As a concept, COVIDSafe has merits and could help us isolate coronavirus cases more effectively. According to developers who've reverse-engineered the Android version of app, it's mostly sound from a security and privacy perspective. But if the government is going to use COVIDSafe installs as the benchmark for reopening the country, it needs to work properly on iPhone.
As it stands, it seems like there are two possibilities. The first is that COVIDSafe is political theatre. The government knows it doesn't work properly on iPhone, but it doesn't care. The app isn't genuinely being used as a benchmark, but as a symbol of government actually "doing something". Restrictions were going to be loosened, app installs, or not.
Alternatively, the government is knowingly putting Australians at risk by pushing an app that does little more than provide a false sense of security to more than half of the country's smartphone users. If the government genuinely believes in COVIDSafe's potential as a mitigation tool, using broken app installs as a metric for when we can have a pint at the pub is flat out dangerous.
Alex Choros
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