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Android version of the Corona app: Endlessly long data synchronization
Photo: Matthias Kremp / DER SPIEGEL
Users who use the federal government's corona warning app on an Android smartphone may not currently receive the current result of the risk assessment.
On Wednesday, several users reported on Twitter and Github that the app was not updating the risk status.
During a test in the editorial office, we were able to understand this behavior.
However, the error did not appear on iPhones.
A spokesman for the software group SAP, who developed the app together with Deutsche Telekom, confirmed the problems on request: At the moment, the Corona warning app on Android smartphones is "in some cases" not able to carry out a key comparison.
"This is currently due to the Exposure Notification Framework under the Google smartphone operating system."
This refers to the technical interface for contact tracking apps that Google makes available on Android phones via its Play Services.
"We have informed Google about the problem and are working together under high pressure to solve the problem," said the SAP spokesman.
23 million active users
According to the Federal Ministry of Health, the Corona warning app has so far recorded more than 25 million downloads and is actively used by an estimated 23 million people.
Most recently, the CDU politician Friedrich Merz and others had campaigned for a relaxation of the data protection concept of the application in order to be able to collect data for a more effective pandemic fight.
This approach met with sharp criticism from the Federal Data Protection Commissioner Ulrich Kelber and the Chaos Computer Club (CCC).
"At no point does data protection conflict with the functionality of the app - with more or less data protection it would work just as well or badly, but by no means better," wrote CCC spokesman Linus Neumann in his blog.
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mak / dpa
