Smartphone brands like Xiaomi, Oppo, Huawei, and more are looking to pre-install the Aarogya Setu app on handsets following mandatory orders from the Indian Government. OEMs have stated that they will fully comply with the move and will include private sector employees as well.

For those unaware, Aarogya Setu is a contact tracing app developed by the Indian government to help to combat the coronavirus. This app essentially connects COVID-19 related health services to Indian citizens and also shares various practices and advisories. This app utilizes smartphones’ connectivity features like Bluetooth and GPS to determine the area of infected people and informing a person whether they have come in close proximity of a person tested positive.

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Arriving back at the current situation, the government had also made this app mandatory for people that are still going to work, especially in the private sectors. But now, it seems that the app will be a lot more pervasive in our lives as it may soon arrive pre-installed in every smartphone from major vendors. This will also include telecom operators like the telecom equipment provider Ericsson, that is already having employees download the app.

So far, the Aarogya Setu app mainly is compulsory for those venturing out during this time of crisis for their jobs, but soon this may change. Xiaomi India’s Managing Director, Manu Jain, stated that the company will comply if the government made it mandatory for the app to be pre-installed. This basically means, that soon other OEMs will soon follow suit and will ensure 100 percent coverage of this app throughout employees and upcoming smartphones.

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Since there is no cure for the COVID-19 disease, the only way to keep ourselves protected is by following social distancing and washing hands. Additionally, governments can implement robust contact tracing systems to avoid more people getting infected by the virus. ‘Arogya Setu’ is an app built for this very reason for Indians. The application is yet to be a month old but the government is already planning to force new smartphone buyers to register.

The Arogya Setu app is available on both Android and iOS. However, there are still a vast majority of Indians with feature phones. The country is still looking into ways to enable contact tracing for those set of citizens.

Before that, the Indian government is planning to force smartphone makers to pre-install the app on their devices. Additionally, it is planning to appoint nodal agencies that will be working together with smartphone companies to implement the setup process of new phones with a non-skippable registration process for Arogya Setu app.

However, it is not known how and when it will be carried out. Because India is yet under lockdown and smartphone manufacturing facilities are still shut down. If the plan gets formalized, we can expect the process to begin as soon as the facilities reopen.

‘Arogya Setu’ has had a remarkable positive response ever since its release. It is reported to have crossed 7.5 crores (75 million) downloads, out of which, 5 crores+ (50 million) alone is from the Google Play Store. The app uses location and Bluetooth data to track the people affected by the coronavirus. 

It has a record of documented COVID-19 patients as well as location history of registered users. By using the app, healthy individuals can avoid crossing paths with the affected persons. It also has sections to self-assess symptoms, issue e-Pass, monitor the status of cases, and more.

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