Aarogya Setu 

is a first official COVID-19 tracking mobile application developed by the National Informatics Centre that comes under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India to connect essential health services with the people of India in our combined fight against COVID-19.

The App is aimed at augmenting the initiatives of the Government of India, particularly the Department of Health, in proactively reaching out to and informing the users of the app regarding risks, best practices and relevant advisories pertaining to the containment of  COVID-19.

This is a tracking app which uses smartphone's GPS and Bluetooth features to track the coronavirus infection. Aarogya Setu app is available for Android and iOS mobile operating systems. Using bluetooth technology, the Aarogya Setu app tries to determine the risk if one has been near a  COVID-19 infected person (within six feet of distance) by scanning through a database of known cases across India, and using location information it determines the location one is in belongs to the infected areas based on the data available.

Aarogya Setu is available currently available in 11 languages(English, Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Punjabi, Bengali, Oriya, Gujarati, and Marathi) and expected to be available in more Indian languages soon. One is asked to provide health and other profiling information after signing into the app.

After installing the app, you have to switch on Bluetooth (you are recommended to keep it on at all times) and Location. Then, set 'location sharing' to 'Always' (you can change this anytime later).

It has a tool for self-testing. The user is asked to answer a number of questions. In case some of the answers suggest  COVID-19 symptoms, the information will be sent to a government server.

The data will then help the government take timely steps and initiate the isolation procedure, if necessary.

You will be alerted if someone you came in close proximity with, unknowingly, tests positive. The app alerts are accompanied by instructions on how to self-isolate and what to do in case you develop symptoms.

app (Android):

Step 1: Connect the phone to internet

Step 2: Go to Play Store and search for app by its name

Step 3: Download the app

Step 4: Open the app and grant location, Bluetooth and other permissions

Step 5: Enter the phone number and verify it by using the one-time password (OTP)

Step 6: Complete the set-up by answering the questions, including those related to your travel history, etc.

Step 7: Take the assessment before you start using the app

The assessment is to check if the app user has Covid-19 symptoms. The answers collected are sent to government servers that allow the government to take timely steps to curb the spread, if necessary. Once the app is set-up, it will work even in phone’s background to interact with other smartphones with the Aarogya Setu app installed.      

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