Google Play Services will be used to deploy COVID-19 contact tracing system to Android devices

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One of the critical questions Google needed to answer about the COVID-19 contact tracing system it was co-developing with Apple is how it would deploy the technology to its devices. The company has since confirmed that it will use Google Play Services infrastructure to make this happen. 

It guarantees that more Android phones will receive the capability promptly since full operating system updates are unfortunately fraught with delays from both carriers and manufacturers. Releasing the system on Google Play Services also means it will be available on handsets running Android 6.0 Marshmallow or above.

According to Google, the update system will be used for both phases of the Bluetooth contact tracing framework, which starts with the initial API rollout expected next month and then with the release of the APIs built into the OS arriving in the "coming months."

Another hurdle Google has to deal with is that there's a massive set of Android phones that don't have access to Google Play Services. These include Android phones in China, especially Huawei devices, which have restrictions imposed on them by the US government that won't allow them to add Google services to their devices.

Google plans to publish a framework that these companies can adopt to replicate the secure, anonymous tracking system that the company, along with Apple, are developing. But then, it will be up for Huawei, Xiaomi, and other Chinese manufacturers to decide whether they will use the system. It isn't clear, though, if the system will be open-sourced, but Google said that it will offer code audits to companies looking to adopt a similar system.

Source: The Verge