Apple-Google alliance welcomed by European coronavirus app platform

An Apple collaboration with Google will make it quicker to get systems for tracing coronavirus infections up and running, the prime mover behind a European effort to support the smartphone technology says.

Technologists are racing to use Bluetooth short-range communications between devices as a proxy for measuring the risk that a person infected with the coronavirus can pass it on.

Apple and Alphabet’s Google said last week that they would launch tools to support such applications in May, with full integration of Bluetooth contact tracing functions into their operating systems to follow.

Chris Boos, who is championing the Pan-European Privacy Preserving Proximity Tracing technology platform, says this can help shorten the path to deployment.