The COVIDSafe app is dead – but was it ever really alive?

The federal government's COVIDSafe app has been scrapped just over two years after its launch. Months before, experts had warned the app's 15-minute exposure window – the time frame used to define a close contact – was "very useless" in tracking the more transmissible variant. In December 2021 Mark Butler — who was then the shadow health minister — called for it to be scrapped after it was revealed to have identified just two close contacts nationally in six months. At its launch, the government said it would need 40 per cent of Australians – 10 million people – to use COVIDSafe for it to be a success. In September 2021, as COVID cases spiked in New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT, the ABC revealed the app had not uncovered any close contacts in those outbreaks.