Apple and Google are working on a solution to facilitate the development of contact tracing applications by governments. But which models will be a priori compatible? It will depend on the version of Android and iOS and therefore on the age of the devices.
The tracing of contacts via smartphones it can play a role in controlling the epidemic coronavirus? Google and Apple believe that it is a technological lever to explore, requested by health agencies: the two heavyweights of tech decided in April to join forces to facilitate the creation of tracking applications ( contact tracing in English ), so that they can work between Android and iOS.
Strictly speaking, this program needs a number of prerequisites to be effective. The contact tracking application must be adopted as widely as possible - there should be a membership rate of at least 60% of people with a smartphone - and, moreover, it must be able to function on a wide variety of models. Including, therefore, old devices.
Read : Coronavirus : Do Google and Apple Have the Key to Making State Mobile Apps More Useful?
This second condition was addressed on April 24 at a joint conference organized by Google and Apple to address several technical issues. One of them concerned the compatibility of the solution brought by the Californian duo. On this occasion, we learned that it was designed for Android 6.0 (May 2015) and the following versions and for the iPhone 6S / iPhone SE and the following iPhone, compatible with iOS 13, i.e. models designed from 2016.
IS YOUR SMARTPHONE COMPATIBLE?
Concretely, does that mean that your smartphone could work the solution of Google and Apple? Very probably.
Android 6 is an older version of Google's mobile operating system: it was released in October 2015. It was followed by four major versions, the latest of which was released in September 2019. All smartphones sold in the past five years have had access to a branch equal to or higher than Android 6. As for earlier models, they were sometimes able to access Android 6 or more.
The schematic principle of contact tracing, between individuals // Source: Claire Braikeh for Numerama
According to statistics provided by Google in May 2019, the share of Android versions found under Marshmallow, the nickname for Android 6, reached 25.2%. This would mean that one in four smartphones would not be suitable for contact tracing from Google and Apple. But according to more recent data , smartphones that are not equipped with Android 6 or more weigh in fact only 15.1% of the total. And it is possible that France has a more recent fleet.
What about Apple? The verification is a little different. iOS 13 is a very recent version of the operating system for the iPhone and iPad, since it was released in September 2019. However, the Cupertino company is arranging for this version to be available on the more devices , in order to minimize the effects of software fragmentation.
Thus, iOS 13 is compatible with fourteen iPhone models, thirteen versions of iPad and an iPod touch. The oldest among smartphones is the iPhone 6s, released in 2015. As for tablets, it is the iPad Air 2, released in 2014. As for the iPod touch, it is that of 2019 that is taken in charge. Apple is however exploring the possibility of going even further back in the chronology of the terminals.
According to fragmentation statistics communicated at the start of the year by Apple, which are no longer entirely accurate today, 77% of iPhones released in the last four years use iOS 13. If we dismiss the year exit rate, this rate is 70%. So there's a noticeable fraction of devices that wouldn't be compatible because they haven't been updated - but it's not an insurmountable obstacle. As with Android, this global data may be different in France.
Under these conditions, it appears that in most cases your smartphone will probably be able to operate the contact tracing solution designed by Google and Apple. It is a certainty if your smartphone is less than five years old, which is certainly the case for a majority of individuals, given the rate of replacement of devices that we observe in the smartphone market .
