Apple and Google Partner to Fight Covid-19. Here’s what you should know about contact-tracing, and how the tech giants are planning to use it against a pandemic.

Apple and Google see eye-to-eye on almost nothing. Their approach to developing hardware and software is almost the exact opposite, not to mention the way each thinks about user privacy.

It seems a most unlikely partnership then that the two tech giants have joined forces to develop a standard to aid public health organizations in the fight against Covid-19. Specifically, the companies announced on Friday that they would both build software into their devices that can be used to help contact-tracing, a necessary tool for slowing the spread of a pandemic.

In a statement, the companies announced: 

“In this spirit of collaboration, Google and Apple are announcing a joint effort to enable the use of Bluetooth technology to help governments and health agencies reduce the spread of the virus, with user privacy and security central to the design.”

One of the things that this reminds us is that while the two companies are fierce rivals in almost every aspect of their businesses, these are extraordinary times. Apple and Google account for the operating systems that power some 99 percent of all mobile devices, putting them in a unique position to help.  

Public health officials have said that contact-tracing is an important tool, especially in helping all of us get back to normal–or whatever the new version of normal looks like. Contact tracing is simply taking the people who have been diagnosed or tested positive, and then identifying anyone they may have come in contact with. Those individuals can then be notified and tested, or isolate until it’s no longer likely that they have been infected.

The problem is that if you test positive, it can be difficult to identify all of the people you may have come into contact with. If, for example, you went to the grocery store over the weekend, it’s entirely possible that you could have come in close enough contact to spread the coronavirus before you even knew you were contagious. 

Read more: inc