COVIDWISE Reviews

I keep Bluetooth turned off when at home, only turn it on when I leave the house. Both for security, as well as battery saving. COVIDWISE is CONSTANTLY bugging me to turn on Bluetooth - about once every hour or two. As if that’s not annoying enough, COVIDWISE even bugs me IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!! Really?! If you want to remind me once, in case I really did forget to turn on Bluetooth, then fine. But any more than that, and it’s a real nuisance. And this nonsense with being repeatedly woken up in the middle of the night - every night - reminding me to turn on Bluetooth...I’m over it. Deleting COVIDWISE ; if you fix the notification issue, I’ll consider reinstalling.

COVIDWISE provides incomplete information that can only make people worried. COVIDWISE says I have likely been exposed to someone who has tested positive. But it doesn’t tell me WHEN I was exposed. It just gives a nebulous “6 days ago”. Six days from when? To be useful COVIDWISE should give the date of the exposure. It should also say the time of day when the exposure occurred. The location of the exposure would also be useful, but that must be too much to ask.

Now all I can do is worry. How do I count back six days? If I’m counting correctly the only thing I did that day was drop my bother at the airport, and I’m confident that I wasn’t close enough to anyone to catch it. But what if I counted wrong? Should I get a test? Or should I leave those for people who really need them? Thanks, this app for increasing my stress level. I wish I’d never installed COVIDWISE .

Received a (push?) notification in late evening saying I may have had a potential exposure. This notification even included a Bluetooth data listing for a number of hours previous (though did not appear to indicate when this alleged exposure occurred). In trying to look at this notification more thoroughly in COVIDWISE , the notification was not in there. Furthermore, the “Exposure” section, indicates I have not had an exposure. So, why did I receive this (alarming) late night notice which disappeared? Did I have an exposure or not?

I received a notification that I had a possible exposure to a person who tested positive. COVIDWISE said possible exposure was 4 days ago, but there is no date on notice. So don’t know if I saw notification when it was received or if it was a week old. App told me to quarantine and get tested. I called Virginia Health Department and they said if I am vaccinated, I don’t need to do anything unless I have symptoms. Also app said I was within 6 feet of a person who tested positive for at least 15 minutes. The Health Department said I was probably in an area that had a high percentage of positive cases. So this confusing information makes me feel very nervous about possibly spreading Covid, but I am not sure I have any reason to be concerned. App needs to provide better current information or it only adds to confusion.

I’m all for the idea behind COVIDWISE and I believe I even used to have it installed... However, as my phone is an iPhone 6 Plus, it doesn’t run iOS 13, which COVIDWISE requires. That seems to mean I can’t take advantage of/participate in the COVID exposure notification enterprise at all. I realize my phone is “old” compared to what’s now available but it still works just fine and meets my needs, and I don’t have hundreds of dollars to spend on an upgrade (nor any real interest in doing so, as I’m 69 years old and don’t aspire to TikTok my way to internet stardom or whatever). I suspect I am not nearly the only person out there still using an iPhone 6 Plus, and for such a large public health problem as COVID, I would’ve thought these “official” apps might better meet the needs of the whole population.

Have had COVIDWISE for a couple of weeks with no alerts, and there is no way to tell if COVIDWISE is working. Some reviewers mentioned a weekly text saying that they had no exposure in the previous week, but I have not received any such report. I am not sure COVIDWISE will be useful if it relies completely on exposed or infected people to self-report. At the very least users should be able to click somewhere to learn how many new exposures were added daily and how many exposure notifications COVIDWISE has made. So that way we would have at least some notion that it’s working.

Downloaded COVIDWISE in 2020 even though many in my area of VA may not use it. I own a retail store thought it would mainly be for travelers that might be in our store. Didn't receive any notifications and that was fine and COVIDWISE didn't affect my phone's battery.

The problem was when I tested positive in January 2021. I did not receive a call, email, or text from the Health Department. My test was done at my local hospital drive-thru area on Friday morning (neg. rapid result then PCR swab for confirmation). The results indicating a positive PCR test result posted to my MyChart acct (good thing that app is on my phone) on Saturday afternoon and TWO DAYS LATER a nurse from my doctor's office called to inform me of the results. I tried multiple ways to get a pin # - calls, emails, through COVIDWISE , etc. I WAS NOT ABLE TO ENTER A PIN # AND REPORT MY INFECTION IN COVIDWISE .

I consider this system a failure and I was wanting it to really work. App may give false security if you think you'll be notified of potential exposures.

I deleted COVIDWISE after my experience.

Got an exposure notification. But it doesn’t say where or what time of day, making it impossible to know where the potential exposure took place (to then notify someone else, say). Grocery store? So it’s minorly helpful but…not really. From a public health data perspective it uses anonymous tokens so why won’t it let you update with your vaccine status? Or test result? Even as an option? This would be good aggregate, non personally identifying data to have re exposure and possible breakthrough case rates. Such wasted potential for using technology to help track and sort.

My gripe isn’t so much about COVIDWISE , because it did notify me of my exposure - 11 days after I had been exposed. I tested the very next day, and due to backups in the labs, got my results 6 days later. So 17 days after exposure I found I was positive. I immediately went to this app to notify of my positive result. I need a PIN from VDH to do so. Today is day 3 I have been trying to get a PIN to notify others of my result. VDH says my record doesn’t exist. No one from VDH has contacted me via phone or text. I’m starting to see why I didn’t get the this app notice of exposure until 11 days after exposure. I had 11 days that I wasn’t aware I had been exposed and was not taking extra precautions (I’ve been vaccinated and wear a mask, distance & wash hands so precautions beyond that). Until they figure out the backlog problem of allowing positive users to immediately notify, COVIDWISE is not going to do much. Still trying to get that PIN so I can let whomever I was in contact with for 11 days know they’ve been exposed.

COVIDWISE drained 25% of my battery over 24 hours, according to iOS, even though I spent almost that entire period at home and did not go to any crowded places. Deleting and reinstalling COVIDWISE may have fixed the battery drain, though that meant losing the potential contact information stored prior to that point.

I am glad to see this tracing/tracking App to help fight the pandemic. It was a fast download and will be great in tracking transmissions and COVID-19 exposures. My entire family have downloaded it to help keep us safe. Like not wearing a mask, we stay completely away from folks that don’t have COVIDWISE as you have no way to know where or with whom they have interacted. Pending a vaccine, this is useful to keep everybody safe. If concerns arise later, one can always delete COVIDWISE or scrub the phone.

The concept and apparent approach to contact tracking via COVIDWISE will be great if Virginia can advertise to the state and get many people to use COVIDWISE . Maybe VA can pass out a flyer with info on COVIDWISE when someone gets tested for COVID-19.

It was easy to install and setup.

Would be great if there was a status indicator or counters that show that it is actually working. Maybe a status page with a counter showing past encounters with other app users or date and time when another user was nearby,

We give our privacy away for the sake of convenience everyday, and COVIDWISE doesn't even ask for that.

Only permissions that I was required to OK were notifications and contact tracing. No location services, no motion information, not even my name. You download COVIDWISE , press OK twice, and you're done. No setup, no room for exploitation.

COVIDWISE is simple, lightweight, respectful of privacy (thanks to the clever decentralized Apple/Google API it’s built on), and plainly worded about what it does. I will be encouraging everyone I know in the commonwealth to install COVIDWISE and turn it on.

Thank you to VDH for demonstrating leadership, making Virginia the first state in the union to use this technology. Like mask wearing, this tech is no magic bullet, but from what I can see it will certainly help.

Great that we can use COVIDWISE to help contact tracing and fight covid.

It took 5 weeks longer to develop than swisscovid and lacks the nice graphics but otherwise seems to do the job.

It was a bit of o struggle to make it work since i had swisscovid installed and enabling notifications didn’t work until i deinstalled swisscovid - without getting clear instructions from the installer. Would be great if one app would work everywhere or if at least switching was easy - uninstall and i stall different app may be acceptable for international travel but not for each trip to Maryland or NC.

There’s not much to COVIDWISE , including ads. Having said that, I don’t think it’s supposed to have much. It does exactly what it says it’s supposed to do, without ads.
It doesn’t ask for any permissions (except notifications, of course!). It doesn’t ask for personal information. There’s not much to it (in the way of interactions).
Oh, did I mention that there aren’t any ads?
Five stars. Thanks.

I’m not one to install an app like this due to privacy concerns but after reading through the methods used for generating tokens and what data is and isn’t collected, I’m on board. There’s a great article out by MIT challenging the 60% app adoption rate myth and it shows how every user adds value to the system. As long as COVIDWISE continues to value my privacy, I’ll gladly let it run on my phone.

A lot of people scared of change, we have moved into the technical aspects of life . Video schooling,video doctors appointments mobile banking. Now this , a app that will help you track a deadly disease and people don’t want to use it . This app should have been downloaded 100,000 time this morning to keep all of us safe. If used correctly we can get back to a somewhat normal life and who does not want that .

Your privacy is protected. This doesn’t use your location and you can read all about your concerns in the FAQ on the VHD website about it. It’s a safe app and needs more users for it to be as effective as it can be!! Some may argue that it needs to have more info about COVID hotspots but this is certainly better than nothing and will hopefully have updated soon. And it does NOT drain your battery. Please download this and be a team player

This is a great app, designed with privacy first in mind. There is no way for anyone to know your information.

Let your friends and family know and ask them to download COVIDWISE . It can save their life. The more people download it, the better it becomes.

I had a colleague receive a notification about possibly being exposed. He went to get tested and sure enough he was positive. He did not have symptoms but he self quarantined and saved his elderly parents from exposure. Download and spread the word! We can fight this virus out together.

No point. Only getting an error message.

Glad VA is ahead of the game utilizing available tech to bring awareness to the risks.

Great job Virginia

Again, Northam leads in getting ahead of Covid. Great news.

Nothing about this technology gates this to only users in VA. I'm in WA and downloaded this. Spread COVIDWISE!

COVIDWISE helps all of us Virginians be safer!

I am so proud of Virginia for being the first state to release an app for contact tracing. As a computer scientist, I understand that COVIDWISE is privacy sensitive and secure. This should be a useful tool in hammering the virus into the ground. Thank you Virginia for your leadership.

Proud of our state leadership and collaboration in a time when it is so vitality needed. Another excellent initiative in this battle!

Haven’t use app yet. Given 5 stars just because it’s great that VA stepped up to be first state to roll out Covid Tracing App. Hopefully other states will follow.

Proud of Virginia for being the first state to make contact tracing easier. COVIDWISE is straightforward and hopefully helps slow the spread.

I’ve been following US/state usage of the Apple and Google Exposure Notification API. For a while I was worried that Virginia’s early enthusiasm would not turn into a usable app. Happy to say I was wrong. Stay safe everybody.

This is what it will take to get things back to as close to normal as we can. Glad to see Virginia leading the way and using this technology. Thanks!

Watching Gov Northam now and gladly sign up for this app. For so long I’ve stayed heathy by quarantine at home, safe distancing, and wearing my masks out of the house. But, what can I personally do to help fight the spread of Covid-19. this app helps me to do MY part in my community. More signups directly translates into more successfully controlling Covid-19. Please sign up yourself and help us all to be safer.

Great app, I was the 3rd on to download it.