Scathing reviews continue to lambaste the now widespread Check-In Tas app as the Liberal government extends its use.
The app has garnered a plethora of one-star ratings – the lowest possible – for an overall rating of just 2.5 out of 5.
Users have identified various problems with the app such as it ‘not working’ after the latest update, unable to register check-ins while offline, closing straight after being opened, and the app crashing with the error message ‘Unfortunately, Check In Tas has stopped’.
“Worked fine on my Android phone until this week. Now it won’t even open. Not impressed with the ‘update’.” – said user Lesley Jolley on the Google Play site just two days ago. He rated the app the minimum one star.
Other users piled on in recently uploaded reviews.
The app has a slightly better rating at the Apple Store where it is rated overall at 3.2 out of 5.
The latest review however identifies the familiar problems. Titling his review ‘Joke’, user Mac said on 5 July:
“Spent most of the day downloading app , now it’s paused on my phone. Has to be the most difficult app ever.”
Another user with a recent model iPhone said they were still having issues such as manual input of QR code not working.
Some users seem to be able to get it to work with RUgirl_inAU saying in 2 July: “App works fine, easy to use, no crashes or anything that I’ve noticed. The main problem is businesses not having anywhere to check in and use it, or people just ignoring and not signing in. Anyway I hope more people use it it’s not a big deal.”
A user named Sydneysider7777 suggested that checking out would be a useful feature but it is not available in the current Check-In Tas app.
“Hi there, I think it would be helpful if you added the capability to Check OUT of a venue, like the Service NSW App has. That way you can be sure that you left a venue before a covid-case was present.” The user rated the app 2 stars.
Despite the reported flaws in the app, the state government continues to push its rollout.
Just yesterday, Minister for Small Business Jane Howlett said that from this week, the requirement for Tasmanians to check in, via the Check in Tas app, is being phased in to new venues in Tasmania. These include retail premises, such as supermarkets, shopping centres and big box outlets, as well as accommodation premises, educational settings and aged care locations.
COVIDSafe
The increasing prevalence of state-based apps appears to be tacit acknowledgement that the federal Liberal-National government’s COVIDSafe app has been a failure. Download figures suggest it was never even downloaded by half the adult population, let alone used.
In June when Victoria’s health minister Martin Foley was asked whether the COVIDSafe app had been used in responding to the latest outbreak, he said: “No. Not to my knowledge, and I’m sure in such a rare event it would have been brought to my attention.”
Mary-Louise McLaws, a leading epidemiologist and adviser to the World Health Organization (WHO), described the app’s current status as ‘very useless’ in detecting the Delta variant with its outdated time-frame configuration.
“It’s pretty clear that with the Delta variant the proportion of transmission that happens that is aerosol is higher,” she told the ABC.
The variant, which has been in Australia since May and is now the dominant strain worldwide, can be transmitted by ‘fleeting exposure’. “You just have to walk past someone,” Professor McLaws said.
The issue with the app is that the settings have not been updated to register ‘fleeting exposure’ measured in seconds.
Maintenance costs to the Australian government for the app are reportedly around $100,000 per week.
