Illustrative image of a StopCovid application screen.

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Thomas SAMSON / AFP

  • The Tous anti-Covid app is due to go live on Thursday.

    His arrival was announced by Emmanuel Macron on October 14.

  • It must replace the Stop Covid application, launched on June 2, which has only been downloaded 2.6 million times, or eight times less than in our German or British neighbors.

  • All anti-Covid should be based on the same technology as StopCovid, offering additional services.

We have known for a few days: the StopCovid application gives way to its replacement Tous anti-Covid.

The launch of this application, announced on October 14 by President Emmanuel Macron, is scheduled for Thursday.

For the moment, little government communication on this tool supposed to accompany the strategy to fight against the coronavirus in France.

20 Minutes

takes stock.

How will it work?

For those who had already installed StopCovid, no need to uninstall the application, it will update itself.

For others, Tous anti-Covid will be downloadable on a voluntary basis.

To save the battery of smartphones, one of the criticisms made to StopCovid, the new version of the application will not be permanently active in the background.

It will therefore be necessary to activate it whenever one has the impression of taking a risk, in the same way as the wearing of the mask or the hydroalcoholic gel.

According to

Le Parisien

, the application could ask the user to enter a postal code to avoid having to resort to geolocation, a method strongly criticized.

The government also wants to make it "with our restaurateurs, with all the cafetiers (...) all the professionals, a tool to better alert, trace" in order to "identify the sources of contamination, trace them and prevent", emphasized Emmanuel Macron.

In the UK, for example, the app makes it easier for customers to provide their details to restaurants and pubs using a QR code reader.

What will it contain?

The government has affirmed its desire to make the application more interactive.

While StopCovid offered fairly basic functionalities, the service offering is expanding on Tous anti-Covid.

“It will be an application (…) where there will be information: how the virus circulates, where you are, where are the points to be tested (…).

So there will be general information, more specific and local information ”, had detailed the President of the Republic.

The list of barrier gestures to be observed, for example, should also be included.

What technology will be used?

Like StopCovid, the new app is expected to run on a centralized model (as opposed to the decentralized model favored by Apple and Google).

It should remain based on the Robert protocol, a communication protocol via Bluetooth devised by scientists specializing in the security of private data.

This technical architecture, the same as StopCovid, should however prevent it from communicating with other European applications.

Indeed, the coronavirus case tracing applications from Germany, Ireland and Italy are now interconnected as part of a system that could affect a total of 20 European countries.

But this system does not work with the applications based on a "centralized" protocol chosen by France and Hungary.

A new company is due to replace the French CapGemini at the end of October, who until then worked for free as project manager on the application.

It will be designated via a call for tenders procedure, and the monthly expenditure ceiling related to the application will increase, from 100,000 euros today to "probably around 200,000 euros", said Cédric O.

Why is StopCovid over?

Since its launch in early June, the StopCovid app has been installed just over 2.6 million times, significantly fewer than the German and UK apps, downloaded 16 and 18 million times respectively.

Consequence: few people declared themselves sick on the application (7,969 positive cases) and only 472 notifications were sent to potential contact cases.

StopCovid, much criticized for its handling of personal data and privacy, was also accused of being a first step towards a general surveillance company.

"It is not a failure, but it did not work", recognized Emmanuel Macron.

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