Exposure Notifications: Help slow the spread of COVID-19, with one step on your phone
Google and Apple jointly created the Exposure Notifications System out of a shared sense of responsibility to help governments and our global community fight this pandemic through contact tracing.
Overview
How Exposure Notifications can help
Traditional methods of contact tracing are critical to containing the spread of infection. Technology can support and augment these efforts by allowing public health authorities to quickly notify people who may have been exposed to a person who has contracted COVID-19, including those the person might not know directly. This starts with Exposure Notifications on your smartphone. These will help your public health authority alert you if you’ve been exposed to COVID-19.
On Android, you can find the app for your area, if available, on Google Play.
If you have an iPhone, opt-in to Exposure Notifications in your device settings.
Using Exposure Notifications helps you protect your community — even if you've been vaccinated.
Hear from the people Exposure Notifications has helped
Molly Moon, Entrepreneur
"I was hesitant to reopen, but knew if I didn't, there wouldn't be a company for my employees to return to. Exposure Notifications help all of us feel protected as we bring joy back to our community."
Ryan and Jennifer
"We're vaccinated, but that doesn't mean COVID-19 won't have an impact on us now. If there's a risk of exposure, why wouldn't we keep Exposure Notifications enabled to let us know?"
Chris, Pastor
"If someone tested positive, Exposure Notifications will privately alert anyone they've come in contact with. Being back together means the world to the congregation, and Exposure Notification helps make that possible."
How Exposure Notifications work
Public health authorities around the world are building apps that use the Exposure Notifications System to help their contact tracing efforts. On Android, you can find the app for your area, if available, on Google Play. Android users will also receive a notification from the Play Store, if their state has made Exposure Notifications available.
If you have an iPhone, opt-in to Exposure Notifications in your device settings.
Once you opt-in to the notification system, the Exposure Notifications System will generate a random ID for your device. To help ensure these random keys can’t be used to identify you or your location, they change every 10-20 minutes.
Your phone and the phones around you will work in the background to exchange these privacy-preserving random keys via Bluetooth. You do not need to have the app open for this process to take place.
Your phone periodically checks all the random keys associated with positive COVID-19 cases against its own list.
If there’s a match, you will receive a COVID-19 exposure notification, with further instructions from your public health authority on how to keep you and the people around you safe.
Exposure Notifications and your privacy
We understand how important your privacy is. Here’s how we’ve built this system to respect your privacy and keep you in control.