NHS rejects Apple-Google coronavirus app plan
As an incentive, Apple will let compliant products carry out Bluetooth-based "handshakes" in the background without hindrance.
The US company does not oppose the NHSX's own effort - and has supported the British team - but still believes its own solution is much more power-efficient.
The UK's solution involves waking up the app in the background every time the phone detects another device running the same software.
It then executes some code before returning to a dormant state. This all happens at speed, but there is still an energy impact.
By contrast, Apple's own solution allows the matching to be done without the app having to wake up at all.
And because the handshakes take even less time to execute, there should be much less toll on battery life... More here.
Power concerns aside, which are important to ensure people continue using the app, I tend to believe that Apple and Google would be far superior in this area than an app from any government.