What is Exposure Notification in iOS 14 and how to use it to track COVID-19 spread?

The exposure notification setting in iOS 14 is a simple contact tracing system which has been built in collaboration with early April in order to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Apple and Google came together to create an API that allows Android and iOS smartphones to trace the contact by interfacing with one another. In an official blog post, the company had introduced the exposure notification to help people amid the pandemic. Check out an excerpt from the blog post below -

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What is exposure notification in iOS 14 and how to turn on exposure notification in ios 14

Across the world, governments and health authorities are working together to find solutions to the COVID‑19 pandemic, to protect people and get society back up and running. Software developers are contributing by crafting technical tools to help combat the virus and save lives. In this spirit of collaboration, Google and Apple are announcing a joint effort to enable the use of Bluetooth technology to help governments and health agencies reduce the spread of the virus, with user privacy and security central to the design.

Exposure Notification is a Bluetooth Low Energy service registered with the Bluetooth Special Interest Group with 16- bit UUID 0xFD6F. It is designed to enable proximity sensing of the Rolling Proximity Identifier between devices for the purpose of computing an exposure event. Devices broadcast and scan for the Exposure Notification Service by way of its 16-bit service UUID. The Service Data type with this service UUID shall contain a Rolling Proximity Identifier and Associated Encrypted Metadata that will both change periodically.

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How to turn on exposure notification in ios 14?

Using exposure notification on iOS 14 and turning it on is a fairly simple task. First, head to the 'Exposure Notifications; section in settings. Then, tap on the 'Turn On Exposure Notifications'. After this, the iPhone will itself let the user know if the country or region they are in actually has exposure notification support. However, the feature has been kept switched off by default. The setting also has a cross-platform communication feature, making it easier furthermore. 

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