Apple has released the third beta build of iOS 13.5 today – alongside a test build of Xcode 11.5 development platform – that introduces an early version of the exposure notification API it has developed in collaboration with Google. With the update, Apple is reportedly seeding the first wave of exposure notification API to public health authority developers.

Developer Guilherme Rambo shared an image of the COVID-19 Exposure Notifications toggle in iOS, which arrives right on the schedule Tim Cook revealed a few days ago. Enabling it means users are giving an app the permission to share random identifier codes with another device over Bluetooth and notify them if they’ve been exposed to infection.

The option to report the infection status is purely optional, but it is what forms the backbone of the whole exposure notification system created by the two companies. Apple and Google have promised to share more details about the exposure notification API in the first week of May for developers.

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