The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has started distribution of the new corona contact notification application COCOA

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has started distributing the new type coronavirus contact confirmation application COVID-19 Contact-Confirming Application (COCOA). It is available from Google Play and the App Store and is available on compatible devices. You can find it by searching with “contact confirmation app”, but it may not be found yet because it will be released sequentially. In the case of the iPhone here from, Android version is here available.

This contact confirmation app was announced as “released in mid-June” . It uses an API jointly developed by Apple and Google , and you can be notified of the possibility of contact with a person who is positive for a new coronavirus infection.

This application is installed by the user himself, and on the premise of his consent, the possibility of proximity to other smartphones is encrypted by Bluetooth and saved in the terminal (not sent to an external server without permission). The distance that is judged as “proximity” is within a radius of 1 m, and only the possibility of contact for 15 minutes or more is recorded.

According to Apple’s and Google’s promises, privacy is thoroughly protected, and personally identifiable information such as phone numbers and location information is not recorded. Only “information about proximity” is saved, and it will be automatically invalidated after 14 days. You can always withdraw your consent of use, which is a major premise, and you can cancel the application and erase the record.

Regarding notification, first register the person who received the positive notification (that is, with the consent of the person) through the application to the notification server of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. In addition, the app users who may be close to you will be notified under the above condition “within a radius of 1 m, for 15 minutes or more”.

Regarding this official release, Apple and Google, who jointly developed and provided the new Corona Rich Contact API, have issued the following joint statement.