The CoronaMelder app will soon be available for older iPhones. Apple has released a new update for iOS 12, so that CoronaMelder can also work on iPhones older than the iPhone 6S.
Making the CoronaMelder suitable for iPhones with iOS 12.5 is “our intention”, writes CoronaMelder product manager Reinier Ladan. “It’s high on the list of things to develop,” says Ladan. He thinks supporting the older iPhones will take some time. “This cannot be arranged within a few weeks,” said the product manager.
CoronaMelder is currently compatible with iOS 13.5 and above, with the 2015 iPhones 6S being the oldest supported model. The app relies on the iOS Exposure Alerts feature, which was only available from iOS 13.5 until now. On Monday, however, Apple released iOS 12.5, making the Exposure Alerts also available for the iPhone 6 from 2014 and the iPhone 5s from 2013. On Android, CoronaMelder is available for devices with Android 6 or higher – devices from 2015 or newer.
About 2 million Dutch people have a smartphone that is too old to support CoronaMelder. Older iPhones in particular are still widely used, data from Telecompaper showed.
4.2 million downloads
In total, the CoronaMelder app for both iOS and Android has been downloaded more than 4.2 million times. Only one app was downloaded more often in Apple’s Dutch App Store this year: Microsoft Teams.
This is how CoronaMelder works
The CoronaMelder works on the basis of bluetooth and can communicate with both Android and iOS. When two users with the app are close to each other, a unique, random code is exchanged. This code is stored on both phones. The app keeps a list of all those exchanged codes, each of which represents a contact moment. That list is only on the user’s phone.
Because the codes are random, it is impossible to find out who belongs to which code. If someone becomes infected, they can send their list of codes to a central server of the GGD. The list is then forwarded to anyone with the app. If someone has the same code as the infected patient, they may be infected too. The user is then explicitly advised to stay at home for ten days.
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