Government switches to Google-Apple for NHS Track & Trace app

The government has abandoned plans to develop its own NHS COVID-19 Track & Trace app, announcing that it would switch to the Google and Apple Framework after facing technical challenges in trials in the Isle of Wight. During a press briefing, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock said the Government would join forces with Google and Apple to ‘deliver a new solution’.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) yesterday revealed that field tests building on the initial trial in the Isle of Wight had identified a number of technical challenges with the NHS’ version of the app, including the reliability of detecting contacts on certain operating systems.

Field tests were used to validate how successful the tool is at detecting contact between people in various real-life scenarios, using a number of phones to test operating systems and devices and observing how the app performs in background and locked state.

Lower contact tracing rates on Android/iOS phones

Findings showed that Android detected over 70% of all contacts from Android/iOS phones in all instances. iOS detected up to 70% of contacts with the app running in foreground, and “significantly less” when in background.

During the past month, the NHS has been testing the app against the Google-Apple model. It found that their system registered 99% of both Android devices and iPhones, but their distance calculations were reportedly weaker.

As a result, Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock yesterday said the Government would join forces with Google and Apple to “bring the best bits of both systems together”.

“We will share our algorithm and the work done on distance calculations and combine that with their work to deliver a new solution,” Hancock said.

In a statement, the DHSC explained: “While it does not yet present a viable solution, at this stage an app based on the Google/Apple API appears most likely to address some of the specific limitations identified through our field testing. However, there is still more work to do on the Google/Apple solution which does not currently estimate distance in the way required.

“Based on this, the focus of work will shift from the current app design and to work instead with Google and Apple to understand how using their solution can meet the specific needs of the public.”

Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock continued:

“Countries across the globe have faced challenges in developing an app which gets all of these elements right, but through ongoing international collaboration we hope to learn, improve and find a solution which will strengthen our global response to this virus.”

The UK is not the first country to make this switch, with Germany and Denmark also moving to the Google and Apple approach in recent weeks.