App Story

 This week, via the ARD Tageschau (the public newscast)....some chatter over the Covid warning-App that the German government sponsored.  

The App  going away on 1 June?  Well....yes.  You won't be able to download it, but you can still keep it on your phone, and use it to show your vax status.

A failure?  No.  

I would suggest that it was primarily there to give some 'hope' (encouragement) to the public that Covid could be managed (even if it was a fake hope).

My wife downloaded (I didn't).  It was about 90 days into use that she got the alert one day....she'd been near someone who tested later positive for Covid.  I had to sit there with her in high anxiety/stress (her reaction, not mine)....fearing the worst of the worst scenarios....for probably five consecutive days.  

It was in this time that I research the driving force on how it operated.  It simply calculated that you stood near (say 1.5 meters) of a person who tested positive yesterday.  It wouldn't tell you when or where this occurred....just that a person near you tested positive.  If you traced your steps for the past three days?  There's probably 300-odd occasions that this potential scenario clicked-on.  For the worry-crowd, it just pushed them to a higher level of stress.

After that first episode....I kinda discounted it as a App of value.  All total?  My wife probably received five of these warnings.  Oddly....none of them resulted in her getting Covid.  Our two episodes of actual Covid?  Strictly from office meetings at her place of work....where no warning episode would ever fit into.

A lesson in App development?  Oh....absolutely.  I would review the data and probably work on this App for future use in other ways.  

If you brought up the App with most Germans?  I'd say most downloaded it and eventually discounted it as a handy App....but they kept it on their phone (just in case).  

How I think development should go?  Soccer club alerts....your App would tell you when high-dose fans of certain clubs are within 10 meters of you.  Or maybe for weird kinky sex freaks....identifying themselves to other weird kinky sex freaks.  Or perhaps sensing your anxiety levels and warning office co-workers that you are entering the work zone....very negative.