The Corona Warning app now also works on older iPhones

The official Corona Warning Federal app can now also be used by owners of older iPhone models 5s and 6. The new version has been available for download on the App Store since Wednesday. However, it may take several hours for the updated app to become visible to all iPhone users.

In Germany, an estimated 1.7 million old Apple smartphones are still active and iOS 13 or 14, which was previously required, cannot be installed. The current version of the Corona Warning app is now satisfied with iOS 12.5, which also works on iPhone 5s and 6.

A new feature in version 1.12 of the app is the Match Log, which aims to help users better assess their risks. In the case of multiple Hazard encounters, only the date of the last encounter is shown on the app’s start page. In the meet log, meetups on other days are now also listed.

240,000 users have passed their test results

The developers have confirmed that the contact notes, which have also been integrated, act as a private memory assistant and work independently of the contact tracing system for the Corona warning app. “It is therefore very important to distinguish between personal entries in contact notes (places and people) and the application tracking system.” For data protection reasons, the Corona Warning app does not know where or who people have met.

To date, more than 240,000 people who have tested positive have used the app to warn their fellow human beings of potentially dangerous confrontations. With an estimated average of five encounters with other app users, over a million warnings have been triggered to date.

The Corona Warning app has been downloaded more than 25 million times from Apple and Google stores. Since not all users use the app permanently, the number of active users is less than this value. Experts estimate that it is currently used by about 23 million people. The effectiveness of the application increases the more people are actually using it.