The Smittestopp app

Smittestopp is an app from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health ("Folkehelsesinstituttet (FHI)" in Norwegian). The app is intended to help prevent coronavirus from spreading among the population and is completely voluntary and safe to use. You must be 16 or older to use the app. You no longer need to use the app, but it might be a good idea to leave it on your phone in case infection rates start rising again.

Woman with face mask is looking at a mobile phone at a bus stop — Illustration: ArtistGNDphotography

Coronavirus is highly contagious. If you have been near an infected person, you may have become infected yourself.

You will receive a message if you have been near a person who has coronavirus and is using Smittestopp. If you become infected, you can do the same. In this way, the app helps to prevent more people from becoming ill.

Neither you nor anyone else can find out who it concerns, only that you have been near someone infected.

No need to use Smittestopp

You no longer need to notify us of infection cases via Smittestopp. Find out more about what you can do if you have tested positive in the Checklist for persons who have tested positive for COVID-19.

It might be a good idea to leave Smittestopp on your phone, so that you can quickly start using it again in case any new recommendations are announced. The Norwegian Institute of Public Health will continue to support the app until further notice, so that it is ready in case infection rates start rising again. The app now has new functionality, which enables users to report positive results to self-tests in the event of another wave of infection.

You can turn off the app by opening Smittestopp and tapping “Turn off”. The phone will then stop exchanging ID keys both with other phones and with the database that stores the ID keys.

Print screen from Smittestopp with the "Turn off"-button. — In the app, you can select "Turn off".

Smittestopp is connected to other European infection tracking apps. If you intend to travel to a country that recommends using an infection tracking app, it would be a good idea to reactivate the app. You will then be able to both give and receive notifications of infection from close contacts in the country you are visiting.

Download Smittestopp

Smittestopp is available for Android and Apple devices and can be downloaded from here:

Can I use Smittestopp?

To use the app, you must have a smartphone which meets the following criteria:

Apple: iOS devices must be updated to at least version iOS 12.5. If your phone is not up to date, you will be told you need to update your operating system when you try to download the app. For iOS, iPhone 5s, 6 and 6+ are the oldest models on which the app can currently be used.
Android: Android devices must be updated to at least version 6. They must also support Google Play Store and have the Google Play service installed, version 20.13.xx or higher.

Unfortunately, if you have an older phone which cannot be updated to meet these requirements, you will not be able to use Smittestopp on that phone.

You must be 16 or older to use the app.

Smittestopp protects your privacy

The app is based on technology from Apple and Google. Safeguarding privacy was a very important factor during the development of the app. Here are some examples of how your data is protected:

To ensure that who you are and where you have been cannot be identified, random ID keys are continually sent via Bluetooth.
The information which is transmitted from phones you have been near is stored securely and only on your phone. This means no other app users or public authorities have access to information on who you have been near or who you are.
It is up to each individual to decide whether they want to download and use the app. You can also choose to delete data, disable the app, or delete it from your phone altogether.
Smittestopp does not collect personal data about you, nor does it have any associated access service.

Privacy and personal data policy

How Smittestopp works

The app must be both installed and enabled on your phone.

If you have tested positive, you register this in the app yourself. This is voluntary, and nobody else can see who has registered as infected.

To let other Smittestopp users know you are infected:

On the app's home screen, tap "Did you test positive?" to report infection. You will then see two options.
1. If you choose "I tested positive at a test centre”, you will be asked to log in via ID-porten. The app will then be able to perform a lookup in the Norwegian Surveillance System for Communicable Diseases, which will confirm that you have tested positive.
2. You can choose "I tested positive on a home-test (self-test)". You will then register that you have tested positive to a self-test.
If you have experienced any coronavirus symptoms, you may enter what time the symptoms started. This will enable the app to determine who needs to be notified of the infection risk.
Finally, you will be asked if you want to share what are known as "ID-keys". Your phone has sent these to other phones during the past 14 days. If your answer yes, the relevant people will be notified via the app. You remain anonymous at all times.

You will find out the test result from the municipality in which you live. You can also log in to Helsenorge and check your results via the test result service.

You will receive a notification via the app on your phone. The app does not send text messages.
In Smittestopp, you will receive a notification telling you that you have been near an infected person and that you will be sent guidelines and advice.
Remember that you may still have been near someone who does not use the app.
In the app, you will be given recommendations on what to do next.
Through the app, you will quickly be notified that you have been near another app user who has tested positive for the virus. In the app, you will be given advice on what to do next.
You will be asked to get yourself tested, but you will not be placed in quarantine via the app.
Have you been told you have been exposed to a risk of infection? Follow the advice at fhi.no:
- Notice of risk of infection
Most people can also use the app at work.
If you have close contact with infected people at work and use approved protective equipment, you should switch Smittestopp off while you are at work. This is to avoid unnecessary alerts about close contact.
If you have a job where you can get in touch with infected people and where you do not use approved infection control equipment, you should keep the app activated at work.
More information can be found here: Smittestopp at work (in Norwegian only).
You must log in through ID-porten to confirm that you have tested positive. The login procedure ensures that only people who have tested positive can notify via the app. You must be at least 16 years of age to use Smittestopp.
If you replace your phone, the new phone will start at zero and registrations will not be transferred from the old one. You may therefore want to switch the old phone on once in a while during the first 14 days after the change, and check if you have been notified of a possible risk of infection on the old phone.
If you have been confirmed infected in the last 14 days before changing phones, you should register as infected on both the old and the new phone.
Smittestopp will only register phones you have been near for the last 14 days, so when 14 days have passed you do not need to check the old phone.
When you report yourself as being infected in the app, you will be asked whether you have experienced any symptoms of coronavirus and, if so, when they started. This will enable the app to determine who needs to be notified of the infection risk. These are people you have been in contact with during the previous two days through to eight days after the symptoms began.
If you have not experienced any symptoms, the app will determine who should be sent a notification based on the date of your test.
You do not need Bank-ID to use the app and you can receive notifications from other people of possible infection without being logged in. However, if you want to let other people know you are infected, you will need to log in through ID-porten.
You do not need to log in at all to
- launch the app and have it enabled on your phone
- receive notifications from other people about possible infection risk
However: To notify other people that you are infected, you must log in through ID-porten.
Yes, you can set the status of the app to inactive. When you are inactive, your phone will not detect other phones you are close to. This also applies if you have disabled Bluetooth or switched off your phone completely.
You can always change your status back to active at any time. Your phone will then start detecting other people’s phones again.
Yes. If you do not wish to receive push notifications from the app, you can turn them off in your phone’s settings.
You can still go into the app to see whether you have received any notifications.

Information about Smittestopp in other languages (fhi.no)

Smittestopp is intended to help limit infection

Smittestopp is intended to help prevent coronavirus from spreading among the population.

Anyone who receives a message via the app that they may be infected will be advised on what to do to. This way, the app can help slow down chains of infection. The app is one of several measures that can help limit the spread of covid-19.

What is the effect of Smittestopp?

You can see the current number of downloads and the number of people who have registered as infected via the app on the website "Key figures from Smittestopp" (fhi.no, in Norwegian).

The more people who download Smittestopp, the greater the effect the app will have. By the start of January 2022, the app had been downloaded over 1.1 million times.

From the app itself, we only know how many people have downloaded it, and how many people have reported being infected in the app. We must therefore estimate the effect of the app in other ways.

The app will catch most people near an infected person, if everyone uses the app

Smittestopp can detect 93% of all close contacts of someone who is infected with COVID-19, if the infected person and those around them use the app. These figures come from a test conducted jointly by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and Netcompany in early May 2021, before the launch of version 3.0, which included configuration changes to improve the tracking of close contacts.

Using the Smittestopp app is entirely voluntary

Downloading the Smittestopp app is entirely voluntary. It is also voluntary to enable it and to use it. You can delete both your data and the app itself at any time.

Through the app, you will quickly be notified if you have been near another app user who has tested positive for coronavirus. This will enable you to start following the health authority's advice sooner and avoid infecting other people if you are ill. This is particularly important because the coronavirus can spread without causing any symptoms.
Every single chain of infection which is stopped by the app helps to slow the spread of coronavirus. The more people who download the app, the more chains of infection we can stop.
Your phone uses Bluetooth technology. This does not provide an accurate measurement of time or distance, nor can it record all types of proximity to other people. The app may not detect all close contact, such as if you have given someone a brief hug.
You must always be aware of the symptoms of coronavirus and follow the advice of the health authorities, even if you are using the app.

What are the differences between the new and old Smittestopp apps?

Apart from the identical name, the two apps have almost nothing in common. The new Smittestopp app is a brand new technological solution which differs from the old one in the following ways:

The new app stores everything on your phone and does not upload information to a central location as the old one did.
The new app uses Bluetooth and not GPS or any other satellite positioning systems. This way, it does not store data on where you have been.
The new app uses less battery power than the old one.
The new app is only used for infection tracking, and not analysis or research.
The new app does not collect data which can be used to identify you, so there is no data to gain access to.
The new app does not automatically message other people. You do this yourself when and if you want to.

This is the logo for the new app:

If you still have the old Smittestopp app installed on your phone, you can safely delete it without affecting the new app. It is also safe to leave the old app on your phone. It is not activated and will not send or receive any information.

Smittstopp and other countries' infection tracking apps

You can both give and receive notification that you have been near someone who has been diagnosed with coronavirus in the EU and EEA, regardless of what kind of national infection tracking app they use. This only works if you get tested and report an infection from your own country, for example if you have returned home from a trip abroad.

Sharing data with other countries is voluntary, and you will be asked to consent to this if you report being infected. If you are notified that you have been near an infected person, the app works as normal. You will not see who it is or where the person was infected, and your consent is therefore not necessary for receiving notifications.

Exchange of data

Several European countries have developed their own infection tracking apps based on the Apple-Google framework, which Smittestopp uses. Exchange of data is done through a common European server. All countries are jointly responsible for the information exchanged.

Participating countries

The countries that are currently connected to the pan-European server that exchanges data between the apps are Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Lativa, Poland, Cyprus, Croatia, Austria, Finland, the Netherlands, and Belgium.

Technical questions and answers

Many people found that the previous app used a lot of battery. As this is a completely different solution from the previous one, it does not use as much power. However, some users may find that Smittestopp still uses a lot of battery power. This partly depends on the type of phone you have and how old it is. In your phone settings, you can see how much power your app uses compared to other apps.
If you have enabled the power or battery saving function during the day or night, Smittestopp will switch itself off. The same applies if you use "intelligent battery management". You can check this in your phone settings.
Google and Apple have jointly developed a common Bluetooth technology for phones. This can be used by health authorities worldwide to reduce the spread of coronavirus.
Smittestopp talks to other European infection tracking apps, so you can also give and receive notifications to/from other countries' infection tracking apps while you are travelling.
When you register as infected in the Smittestopp app, the app will send a notification to everyone that you have had close enough contact with during the relevant period. It will do this only once a day. Members of your household, or healthcare professionals who are close to you after you have gone into isolation, will not be notified later.
From the menu, go to settings and tap the language you wish to switch to. The app will then restart to activate your selected language. You can choose between these languages:
- Norwegian bokmål
- Norwegian nynorsk
- English
- Arabic
- Lithuanian
- Polish
- Somali
- Tigrinya
- Urdu
The app does not in any way record information about where you have been, neither with GPS nor with any other technology.
On Android phones, you are prompted to enable location, because Android blocks apps from accessing Bluetooth unless location services are enabled. Smittestopp does not need your location and does not collect or use it. The Google-Apple framework also prevents phones with tracking apps installed from using this in the app.