Where did things go wrong with Canada’s COVID Alert app? – CBC
The app was downloaded 6.86 million times. Experts say millions more were needed for it to be effective
Feb 09, 2022
In the summer of 2020, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau touted the new COVID Alert notification app as a tech-forward tool to help trace and slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Nearly two years later, uptake has plateaued, and questions remain about whether the roughly $21 million spent to develop and promote the app was worth it.
“I don’t think the COVID Alert app made much of a difference in our fight against COVID,” Peter Loewen, director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, told CBC’s Cost of Living.
“That doesn’t mean that it was a waste of money, necessarily. We didn’t even spend enough money to really try.”
The COVID Alert app launched in July 2020 for Apple and Android devices. The app uses Bluetooth signals to exchange random codes with nearby phones that also have the app installed.
Users are alerted if they’ve spent at least 15 minutes near another user who has tested positive for COVID-19.
