Recognizing that StopCovid "did not work", Emmanuel Macron announced a new version of the coronavirus tracing application, this time called Tous Anti-Covid.
Available Thursday evening, this update will include new features to try to convince the French to finally download it.
Goodbye StopCovid, hello All Anti-Covid!
As announced by Emmanuel Macron on October 14, the government application for tracking the coronavirus changes its name on Thursday.
A facelift to forget the fiasco of its launch (only 2.6 million downloads since June) and especially to try to make itself a little more useful.
Because beyond the name, the application will integrate new features, available Thursday evening, after the press conference by Jean Castex and Olivier Véran on the evolution of the health situation in France.
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New name, new functions
A clarification from the start: All Anti-Covid is not a new application, simply an update of StopCovid.
To benefit from it, it will be necessary, once it is available, to download it from the application store of your phone.
Apart from the name, and a new logo, little or no visual changes are expected, still with three tabs and an activation button.
The detection of other users is still done via bluetooth and people with a positive Covid test can inform it by entering a code.
It is once the update is completed that you will have access to the new features of the application.
At the request of the government, the developers designed this version 2.0 to be "more interactive", not just a tool that you activate and forget.
Indeed, today, we activate the application once and then we let it run in the background permanently.
This causes two problems: we tend to forget that the application is running and it uses up the battery.
To remedy this, you will now have to manually activate All Anti-Covid yourself before entering a crowded place, such as public transport, a shopping center, your business, etc.
Covid monitoring at the local level
Another addition: the application will now integrate a certain amount of information on the health situation, so that everyone can precisely follow the evolution of the spread of the coronavirus.
By indicating your location yourself, a priori by entering your postal code, (like the previous version, Tous Anti-Covid does not use the geolocation function), you will be able to access the latest information on the dissemination of the Covid in our city, our department or our region.
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On the other hand, several avenues were abandoned for lack of time to develop them.
A priori, no QR Code to scan at the entrance of restaurants to register.
No appointment for a test either directly in the app.
Instead, Tous Anti-Covid will still tell you the nearest testing centers, again using your postal code.
The fundamental principle of the application remains the same: the use is based on voluntary service, in accordance with the recommendations made by the Cnil in the spring.
Without constraint, it will therefore again be necessary to convince the French of its interest.
"There is an educational effort to be made", we recognize at Bercy.
And the challenge is great: with only 2.6 million users, a large part of them inactive, the French application suffers from the comparison with its German and British neighbors.
This time, the government can count on the support of eminent epidemiologists, who will call on the French to download Tous Anti-Covid.