How are Apple and Google teaming up to make COVID-19 contact tracking tech? Latest details inside.

In his earlier announcement, Sundar Pichai said that Apple and Google are going to work together. They will build a contact tracing app against COVID-19. The blog reveals that the app will use Bluetooth technology. They will roll out the app in two stages.

To help public health officials slow the spread of #COVID19, Google & @Apple are working on a contact tracing approach designed with strong controls and protections for user privacy. @tim_cook and I are committed to working together on these efforts.https://t.co/T0j88YBcFu

— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) April 10, 2020

First, in May, both companies will release APIs that will enable interoperability between Android and iOS devices. This will use apps from public health authorities. These official apps will be available for users to download via their respective app stores. An API allows two applications to converse with each other. In simple words, Google and Apple will develop an app that will transfer data from public health authorities to the user and vice versa.

Second, in the coming months, Apple and Google will work to enable a broader Bluetooth-based contact tracing platform. They will build this functionality into the underlying platforms. Now, even Aarogya Setu App uses Bluetooth functionality, but due to its privacy crisis, how reliable is Bluetooth tech?

So what's new?

On questions raised by The Verge, Apple told them, "Once you update your phone to the latest version of the operating system, and opt-in to the contact tracing API, your phone will begin sending out Bluetooth signals to nearby phones and recording signals sent to it by other phones. The best part of this system is that it works retroactively — once you download a public health app tied into this system, it will share your “proximity events” from the past 14 days."

Although this isn't clear whether data transmission will be possible if we don't download the public health app.