Historic rivals Apple and Google join their phone-controlling powers

There's no "we" in iOS... But there is an "and" in Android. Google and Apple are teaming up to launch a COVID-19 tracking tool. The new system, which will be intro'd in mid-May, allows iOS and Android users (aka 99% of smartphones) to voluntarily share data through Bluetooth transmissions and health org-approved apps. There's no use of location data — it's based on proximity to other phones (and therefore your close contact with other people):

• You download an app from a public health authority. The app exchanges anonymous identifier data with other participating phones you've come in contact with. If you report that you tested positive for COVID-19...
• The app then alerts those phones' owners that they may have been exposed. Then the testing and contact-tracing cycle (ideally) repeats.
• Eventually Google and Apple will build a functionality where iOS and Android users don't have to download an app, and can just opt in easily.

Red Sox vs Yankees, Pepsi vs Coke, Marvel vs DC... Apple's iOS and Google's Android are historic smartphone operating system rivals — and fans get very heated on their preference. This unlikely partnership speaks to the importance of the tool:

• Tracking is key to testing and (if necessary) self-quarantining yourself to avoid infecting others. But we don't have a widely-used tracking tool.
• Apple and Google are the only ones who can launch this on a large-scale in the US (and the world). South Korea and Singapore have used similar (though way more privacy-invading) COVID-19 tracking apps, which has been key to their success in containing the disease.