With version 1.12.1 of the Corona Warn App, it can now also be used on older iPhones. The update is available now and brings new features.
Improving compatibility
After the app was released last summer, it quickly became clear that it could not be used on older smartphones. As soon as a smartphone was older than five years, the app could not be installed in the first place. With the new update, the Corona Warn is now compatible with older iPhones running iOS version 12.5. This means that users of an iPhones 5s or iPhones 6 can now also use the app. This allows an additional 1.7 million people to use the Corona Warn App, according to estimates. Despite this, there is said to be a difference when using it on iOS 12.5. For example, the risk calculation is done only twice a day. However, with the iOS versions from 13.7, the risk calculation takes place six times a day as soon as the phone is connected to the WLAN. With the older versions, the user can then only trigger the update manually if he wants a risk calculation more than twice a day.
Contact diary gets encounter history
One of the new features after the update is the already announced encounter history, which has been added to the contact diary. The history is intended to make it easier to better assess the risk one has been exposed to. The feature has become more accurate with the update; previously, users could only see the date of the last encounter if they had multiple encounters. With the update to 1.12.1, it is now possible to look up the days of the other encounters as well. The contact diary now receives the information of the last 15 days. So it is now possible to track the risk status, for example, when it was increased and when it was rather lower. If there were days without risk encounters, no risk status is displayed either.
Privacy concerns and privacy
To allay privacy concerns, the federal government has pointed out that the contact diary serves only as a private memory aid. So it runs independently of the contact tracking system. There is no data exchange between the two parts of the app, as they are strictly separated. Also for privacy reasons, the app does not know where the user is and who you have met. The alert app only receives the pseudonymized ID of other smartphones.
The new features of the app can be checked under the app information after the update. The update should be distributed within the next 48 hours.
