UK shifts NHS COVID-19 app to Google-Apple system

The UK's NHS is dropping its homegrown solution and instead turning to the system proposed by an Apple and Google partnership to power its coronavirus contact tracing app.

The move - confirmed by the BBC and pending confirmation from the UK Government - is a major change of direction for the app. Development and discussion around the app had seemingly stalled in recent weeks, leading many to suspect that it wasn't working the way that NHSX - the technology group responsible for the project - had hoped. 

The shift will see in-built contact tracing from Apple's iPhone and Google's Android devices providing the information about close proximity contacts, allowing a network of contacts to be alerted should a user test positive for the virus. 

It's expected that the NHS app will look the same as the version currently in testing on the Isle of Wight, but the underlying mechanics of the application will now be substantially different.

The Google-Apple system works on a "decentralised" model, meaning that the data remains on the phone and anonymously notifies other users when triggered by a positive COVID-19 diagnosis. This information is not available to the NHS, meaning that authorities cannot gather the data and analyse it.

Originally, that had been on the UK's wishlist, allowing the identification of hotspots so that action could be taken and to allow wider epidemiological data gathering, in a so-called "centralised" system. Privacy advocates had raised warning flags about this approach, preferring the decentralised model proposed by the tech giants.

The message from the Government when pushed about delays to the app in recent weeks was that the app was less important and that people in the track and trace system preferred contact from a human being, rather than from an app - but that message doesn't really chime with this recent change of direction.

When Apple and Google first proposed their own system of contact tracing, Health Secretary Matt Hancock had said that there was potential to use the system; indeed, it was reported in by the Financial Times in May 2020 that NHSX was commissioning a second app so that the UK could use either system moving forward. 

From the outset, technology experts had warned that any contact tracing system that didn't use the Google-Apple approach would struggle to be effective, because of the way that Apple handles access to Bluetooth when apps are running in the background. Bluetooth is the essential element of the system and although the original NHSX app claimed to have found a way around the problem, we suspect that this is still part of the issue. 

Using core code from Google and Apple should mean that any app based on their system should be more efficient in terms of battery life, as well as having the necessary access to the device's hardware. 

We're awaiting for official confirmation of the change from NHSX.  

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