Aarogya Setu, the contact tracing app of the Indian government, is making its way to Jio phones. The app has currently over 9 crores Indian android and iOS users. NITI Aayog is now planning to target crores of Jio phone users who can help government agencies to track the deadly COVID-19.
MyGov India’s CEO Abhishek Singh in an online interview with Hindustan Times confirmed that they are developing a different version of the Aarogya Setu app compatible with Jio phones. Earlier, Union Health Ministry has announced to avail Aarogya Setu functionality for feature phone users via IVRS. For this, the authority has released IVRS number ‘1921’ on which citizens can give a missed call and then receive a call back for health inputs.
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”We know that in India the number of smartphones is around 45 to 50 crores and there is a large number of people who use feature phones. And then there are again around 11 crore people who use Jio phones. So, for the Jio phones which use the KaiOS operating system, we are developing a version of Aarogya Setu which will work on KaiOS and the Jio phone so that around 11 crores more people will be covered with that version of the app,” said Mr. Singh during the video call.
The officer, however, didn’t disclose the launch date of the app but we hope it to be soon. A few days back, the Indian government had announced that they are working with mobile manufacturers to pre-install the Aarogya Setu app in upcoming devices.
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The Aarogya Setu app is designed to track Indian citizens using the smartphone’s Bluetooth and GPS location. The app is open to use in 11 languages and attempts to show the user’s vulnerability to the novel COVID-19 through a self-assessment test.
And at the end of the day, even after all the efforts made by the government, citizen’s involvement in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic is crucial.