WA Notify, an app launched by Washington state to inform people if they’d been exposed to someone who recently tested positive for COVID-19, is scheduled to sunset on May 11.
The Washington State Department of Health announced Monday that the end of the smartphone app will coincide with the end of the public health emergency.
WA Notify, or Washington Exposure Notifications, launched in November 2020 as infection rates were soaring during the first several months of the pandemic.
Using technology developed through a joint effort by Apple and Google, the app took advantage of low-energy Bluetooth signals emitted by smartphones to detect and remember interactions. This allowed people to be notified if they’d been in proximity to someone who later tested positive for COVID. The app did not collect any personal information to identify app users or track their movements.
As of April 18, DOH says there have been 3.93 million total activations of the app. Approximately 235,000 participants confirmed a positive test result in WA Notify, generating more than 2.5 million anonymous exposure notifications.
DOH credited the app with saving lives.
Washington state was one of the first states to implement exposure notification technology and consistently had one of the lowest COVID-19 death rates in the country, according to DOH.
The agency said that after May 11, users will no longer receive notifications they were near someone who tested positive for the virus. Users may receive a notification on their phone alerting them that the tool will be disabled. No action will be needed, although Android phone users can uninstall the WA Notify app if they choose.
