About the technology
- MassNotify was a service developed in partnership with Google and Apple to help slow the spread of COVID-19 and was used as another tool in our fight against COVID-19. MassNotify went live statewide in Massachusetts in June 2021.
- By opting in, users’ devices shared anonymous codes with other MassNotify users using their phone’s Bluetooth technology. MassNotify codes contained no personal information or location data and were completely anonymous. If a user tested positive, they could easily and anonymously notify other users they had been near recently to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
- Between June 2021 and May 2023, approximately 3.2 million smartphones users chose to activate MassNotify on their devices. During that time, over 89,000 people used MassNotify to alert approximately 1.8 million others that they were potentially exposed to COVID-19, giving them information they could use to make decisions about their own health.
-
The national exposure notification resources that supported MassNotify were discontinued with the end of the federal public health emergency on May 11, 2023. The MassNotify system is no longer able to be used to notify others you may have exposed if you test positive or to notify you if you were near someone who tested positive for COVID-19.
-
High levels of vaccination, widespread population immunity, and available treatments have significantly reduced the risk of severe COVID-19 disease, hospitalization, and death. We encourage you to continue following the Massachusetts Department of Public Health COVID-19 guidance at https://www.mass.gov/covid-19-updates-and-information.
Individual iOS or Android Devices
If you previously chose to enable MassNotify on your phone, you may have been automatically notified when the system was discontinued. No further action is needed from you to turn off COVID-19 exposure notifications. Apple and Google have instructed that MassNotify users may take the following steps if they would like to confirm the system is no longer active:
- For iPhone users: Going to Settings, then Exposure Notifications will show that the system is inactive.
- Android users: Going to Settings, then Google, then COVID-19 Exposure Notifications will show that the system is inactive. If you have an Android phone and wish to uninstall the Exposure Notification functionality distributed to your phone by the Google Play Store, you can do so at any time by taking the following steps:
- Open the Google Play Store
- Tap the profile picture at the top right
- Select Manage apps & devices and open the Manage tab
- Tap on “Exposure Notifications Settings Feature – MA” and click Uninstall
- It is important to note that the presence of the Exposure Notification functionality on Android phones did not automatically activate Exposure Notifications on users’ devices, and users’ device settings were not changed. For more information on how Exposure Notifications worked through Android phone settings, please see Google’s Play Store article here.