Government agencies and health services around the world are working together to find ways to counteract the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus in order to protect people and help society return to its normal life.

Software developers also contribute by creating technical tools to contain the virus and save lives.

Following the spirit of worldwide collaboration, Google and Apple have begun to jointly develop technology that will help governments and health services use Bluetooth to combat the spread of the virus. The basic principles of the new technology are the security and privacy of users.

As long as COVID ‑ 19 coronavirus can be transmitted from infected people to those near them, health authorities have come to the conclusion that contact tracing is one of the most effective ways to contain the pandemic. The world’s leading healthcare services, universities and nonprofit organizations from around the world are already developing technologies for voluntary contact tracing. To support these efforts, Apple and Google will soon launch a comprehensive solution that will include application programming interfaces (APIs) and operating system-level technologies to help launch contact tracing. Given the urgency of this issue, this solution is planned to be implemented in two stages. First, in May, the two companies will jointly release an API to ensure compatibility between Android and iOS devices when using applications created by health services. Users will be able to download these official tools from their respective app stores. Then, in the coming months, Apple and Google will jointly launch a broader Bluetooth-based contact tracking platform by integrating the relevant functionality into their operating systems. This is a more robust solution than the API: it will give users the ability to enable contact tracing and will provide for interaction with a wider ecosystem of healthcare applications and services.  Confidentiality, transparency and voluntariness are the main priorities in the development. Besides, all necessary information on the project will be publicly available.

Video conferencing has never been popular until the pandemic broke out. In the 2010s it was the exception rather than the rule and businessmen all over the world were more likely to go on a business trip rather than to meet at a virtual event on a regular basis.

Already today there are numerous applications and platforms for video conferencing and collaboration. Some, such as Cisco WebEx, are industry standards but can be expensive. Others are growing in popularity and may even be offered free of charge or at a low cost, such as Zoom, Google Hangouts, GoToMeeting, etc.

Video conferencing is used here and then for various purposes, including webinars, product demos, team meetings, and even job interviews.

We suddenly realized that a virtual conference is indispensable to interact and to do business and it requires high-quality audio and visuals.

Furthermore, the vendors creating these solutions will be hearing more and more complaints about interoperation, the inability to have side conversations, and security of conferences.

Thus, video conferencing still remains problematic and the developers are forced to look at it from all perspectives. But we assume that they should be able to field several potential solutions to tackle all known issues by the end of this year and sure virtual conferencing will play a major role as means of communication in the post-pandemic world.

We would like to address to you in this hard time of the worldwide pandemic, self-quarantine, and isolation to inform you that we fully share the same feelings of surreal and uneasiness. Most of us are being asked to work from home. Social media are full of disturbing posts. But despite all this, we must not forget that after the storm comes nice weather. So what we suggest doing right now is to lie low, try to stay calm and we will be informing you about interesting trends in the world of information technology that always appear.

Hopefully, you’ll have plenty of time to check out what we keep offering to you. Thanks for your understanding and patience, keep washing your hands and — events or no events in the digital world — we’ll see you very soon.