The Covid contact-tracing app for England and Wales, which was downloaded 31m times during the course of the pandemic, is being wound down later this week.
Coming about three years since the first nationwide lockdown, the move is part of a drive to encourage people to “learn to live” with the virus. Users of the app will receive a notification on Tuesday telling them it is being discontinued. They will no longer receive alerts informing them when they have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19.
Dwindling usage meant the app was in danger of becoming defunct, as Covid measures – such as free tests – were removed and vaccination take-up grew. However, the NHS app will continue to allow people to request a certificate proving their Covid vaccination status as part of any requirements for international travel.
After the first wave of cases in spring 2020, the government pivoted to “contact tracing” to try to contain the spread of the virus without relying on mass restrictions.
The Covid app was launched to let people check in at venues using a QR code, inform them what restrictions were in force based on their location, and keep track of how many days they had left to isolate if they had been in contact with someone who had tested positive.
A trial was run in August 2020 on the Isle of Wight, mustering just under 300,000. As efforts grew to avoid imposing a second national lockdown, the number of users shot up, reaching 16 million in October 2020. Adverts were rolled out telling the public: “Protect your loved ones. Get the app.”
The latest figures show the app has been downloaded 31,681,000 times, of which just 103,885 downloads were this year.
The app was blamed for a “pingdemic” when alerts telling users to self-isolate reached record levels – prompting concerns about shortages of workers and goods, as well as suggestions from some they might delete it.
The Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, chair of the cross-party parliamentary group on Covid, said: “Considering the government’s chaotic, ineffective and eye-wateringly expensive track and trace app, it is essential that lessons are learned and that an effective app can be operational at a moment’s notice if necessary.
“It is the responsibility of this government and those that follow to ensure that pandemic preparedness is never again treated as an afterthought.”
The software code was unlikely to be thrown away, meaning the app could be reactivated in the event it was needed again, said Dr Edgar Whitley, a reader in information systems at the London School of Economics.
While the Covid contact-tracing app was groundbreaking and helped raise awareness of the virus, the “many false alarms and errors discouraged the users and raised ethical concerns about the use of the collected data”, said Prof Daniela Romano, the director of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence at De Montfort University.
Prof Steven Riley, director-general of data, analytics and surveillance at the UK Health Security Agency, which runs the app, defended its performance, calling it a “vital tool” that he said helped prevent at least 1m cases, 44,000 hospitalisations and 9,600 people dying.
• This article was amended on 28 March 2023 to include a response from the UK Health Security Agency which runs the app, and to clarify that the first month of the app’s use, in August 2020, was a trial on the Isle of Wight.
