The NHS Covid-19 app - too hard on my phone

I've uninstalled the NHS Covid-19 app already. It isn't kind to my phone. 

Uninstallation doesn't matter at the moment, because the app is still in trial and works only on the Isle of Wight. But it will matter in the future, when it goes live all over the country. I don't want to undermine its effectiveness by not having it on my phone and collecting information on close encounters with virus-infected people.

But the information given on the app is misleading. It entails switching on not just Bluetooth but GPS too, at least on my Android phone. The on-screen set-up instructions are explicit on this, and in fact if you switch off either radio (deliberately or accidentally) the app will notify you instantly, telling you to switch it back on. And these messages persist - you can't dismiss them. A constant reminder to restore functionality.

Bluetooth on its own, even if switched on 24/7, would be tolerable. But GPS gallops through battery power. My Samsung Galaxy S8+ phone is now three years old. I'm confident that its battery will stay healthy for at least another year, but only if treated well. It won't like a lot of hammering. And having Bluetooth and GPS on at the same time, all day long, without a break, will be too much. I can't risk a failed battery, or one that gets so weary that it won't keep its charge for more than a few hours. If that happened I'd be forced to buy a new phone before I want to.

I woke this morning to find that my battery-power had reduced by 60% since the last full charge 16 hours previously - and this was after putting the phone into Flight Mode for 7 hours overnight (i.e. no Bluetooth, no 4G, and also switching off GPS). I'm really saying that it lost about 60% in 9 active hours, and would completely discharge if Bluetooth and GPS were switched on for a full 17 hours, the length of my average waking day (7.00am to midnight). I don't want that.

It's not that the NHS Covid-19 app itself uses a lot of power. The main trouble lies with three other apps that spring into overdrive if Bluetooth and GPS become available: Google Maps, Memory-Map, and Fitbit. I use all three of them a lot, most days.

Google Maps will give me a boatload of handy local information if I reveal my precise position with GPS. Memory-Map will show my exact position on all scales of the nationwide Ordnance Survey maps I have installed on my phone. And Fitbit will constantly synchronise, to give me the latest updates and analyses on my fitness.

All these are good things, but I don't want them all the time, only now and then when needed. So I don't regularly let any of these three apps use GPS (and in Fitbit's case, Bluetooth too, like the NHS app). This is a deliberate policy, to save on battery power. But with the NHS Covid-19 app installed, and both Bluetooth and GPS switched on, they get the chance to feed like wolves.

Well, I'm not going to do without those three other apps. They are essential to me. As are a lot of others that also consume oodles of battery power even on 4G alone, because they involve long screen-time - such as Google Chrome, and Gmail, Documents to Go, and my photo-viewing app. My phone has a lot to do, and I don't want to inhibit its general capability and functionality by over-using Bluetooth and GPS, and running out of juice.

What to do now?

Well, I could reinstall the NHS Covid-19 app on my phone when it goes nationwide, but keep it dormant unless mixing with crowds. In other words, use the app on a part-time basis, when I can't avoid fairly close contact with other people. When visiting a town centre, say. And at other times, keep it in limbo by disabling Bluetooth and GPS. Those nagging messages to switch those things on would be annoying, though.

Or I could buy and wear another device with Bluetooth and GPS - a smartwatch comes to mind, perhaps one of Fitbit's. That will probably be the better way. The virus probably isn't going to disappear for another year, so the need will be there for a long while ahead. It's an important reason to upgrade to a proper smartwatch, as opposed to a mere fitness tracker. But I'd best wait until the nationwide release of the app, and make sure that the smartwatch I have in mind will run it. As for the cost of upgrading, that's mostly paid for already, by not spending money on eating out and clothes and holidays during the past two months.