AlohaSafe Alert

Hawaii's Official Exposure Notification App

During the COVID-19 pandemic, aio led the coordination, development and implementation of AlohaSafe Alert, the State of Hawaii's official exposure notification platform.

Statewide Activations

Over 1M+

National Ranking

#1 in Nation for Exposure Notification adoption

“Hawaii was #1 in the country in Exposure Notification adoption with almost 50% of its population using AlohaSafe Alert”

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Built on Privacy-Preserving Technology

AlohaSafe Alert was built on the Google/Apple Exposure Notification framework (GAEN), which was developed by Google and Apple to facilitate digital contact tracing during the pandemic. The technology was built on low energy Bluetooth, while also adhering to strict privacy-preserving protocols and guidelines.

Hawaii, with almost 50% of its population using AlohaSafe Alert, was #1 in the country in Exposure Notification adoption.

In Partnership with

Hawaii State Dept of Health

County of Hawaii

County of Honolulu

County of Kauai

County of Maui

How it Worked

AlohaSafe Alert is a free voluntary new service that helps slow the spread of COVID-19. It is the State of Hawaii’s official exposure notification platform and has been implemented in partnership with the Hawaii State Department of Health.

  • Activate Exposure Notifications on your iPhone or download the AlohaSafe Alert app on Google Play and run through the setup screens.
  • Your device, using Bluetooth technology, can now anonymously communicate with other phones. Devices running AlohaSafe Alert “ping” each other, measuring the strength of the Bluetooth signal and duration of interaction.
  • When AlohaSafe Alert senses a close contact, the two devices will exchange a secure, random, anonymous code. Location, name and any other identifiable information are never included

  • If you test positive for COVID-19 and have AlohaSafe Alert activated on your device, you will have the ability to share the anonymous codes your phone has transmitted. By sharing your anonymous codes, anyone you exchanged codes with (that meet the minimum exposure criteria), will receive an anonymous notification of possible exposure.

  • For an exposure notification to be triggered, devices you were in proximity to while infectious must meet a minimum threshold of exposure, which is a distance of 6 ft or less for a minimum of 15 minutes. The 15 minute threshold is cumulative, so a notification will be sent if you were in close contact with one or more positive individuals for a total of at least 15 minutes.

    The infectious window is based on the date of symptom onset or date of test and the duration of infectiousness is set by the Hawaii Department of Health and is based on available science and local epidemiology.

  • If someone tested positive for COVID-19, they had the ability to anonymously report their positive test result through the app, which would in turn anonymously notify others that the device had interacted with, that they may have been exposed.

Activate

Users either activated Exposure Notifications on their iPhones or downloaded the AlohaSafe Alert app for Android devices.

Detect

Through Bluetooth technology, activated devices communicate with each other, measuring several variables to understand the risk of exposure - including strength of signal, duration of interaction and proximity of the interaction.

Exchange

When AlohaSafe Alert sensed a close contact with other devices, the devices exchanged a random code to acknowledge the interaction (no identifiable information was exchanged.)