Question to the community: Top 10 of feature requests / enhancement

[dsarkar]

Dear community:

We would appreciate your feedback and input on developing a list of Top 10 feature requests/enhancement!

Top issues (based on interactions and traffic on wishlist repo, beginning of February):

• Enhance contact diary
• Check-in functionality (Restaurants, shops, events)
• Reproducible builds / APKs
• CWA in US App-Stores
• Development Roadmap / Transparency / Statistics
• Local regulations
• Vaccination
• More details: When/where/... as (risk-) contact?
• Beta testing

Regarding the contact journal:

• Contact Diary: Option to document the environment in which a contact was met #305 Contact diary: allow to change the date of a contact-meeting  #307 Contact diary: Add icons of the kind of meeting #308 Contact Diary: Add new Entries from Edit View #317 [Contact Diary] Process if entry already exists #318 [Contact diary] grouping of contacts and one-time contacts #322 Contact diary: Make it possible to change contact people sort order #325 Improve Contact Journal usability for editing and deleting entries #334 Cosmetical changes to improve usability
• Contact diary: Entering period of time in which a given place was visited #301 Contact Diary: Option to document the environment in which a contact was met #305 Contact diary - add comment field (free text) for each day #314 Notes on contact diary entries (locations) #350 Additional fields (Comments, Time Period) for each day and/or contact/place entry
• Contact journal: Reminder for sharing contact journal after reporting an infection #292 Contact diary: export entries in SORMAS-compatible format #297 Contact diary (iOS) allow the import from the iOS contact list #306 Contact diary: export single events #309 Contact diary - Export to a text file or PDF #315 Contact Journal (Diary) CSV import #324 Improvement of Import / Export functionality
• Contact diary: allow users to enable a daily reminder via push notification #294 User defined push notification: Daily reminder at user defined times to add person/place
• Add Home Screen Quick Actions/App shortcuts (Contact diary) #295 / Quick access to contact diary #330 Homescreen/ Quick-Access to contact diary (Shortcut)

Note: Several contact journal enhancements suggested by the community will be implemented in future release 1.13.

Thank you for your collaboration!

EDIT: Rapid AG tests: #371 & #374

[dsarkar]

@Ein-Tim @ndegendogo @MikeMcC399 @daimpi

[Ein-Tim]

Thanks for asking @dsarkar

I think you summed up the most desired things, there are some other features I would like to see, but they are currently not possible to introduce because of ENF/ENS regulations (see #363).

[dsarkar]

@Ein-Tim Thanks for the feedback. Yes, we keep also an eye on #363, specifically dealing with wishlist items that are problematic in respect to ENF/ENS Google/Apple limitations and/or data protection.

[Ein-Tim]

One thing I would like to add is the support of Rapid tests (wishlist issues #371 & #374).

[dsarkar]

@Ein-Tim I thought so. There are various wishlist items regard the rapid AG tests. Although not discussed in length here, this might pick up, once the availability of these tests increases.

[MikeMcC399]

@dsarkar
Do you have any framework you use to judge whether requests fit the strategy of the app? Also how do you judge which items are most desirable in terms of achieving goals?

[daimpi]

@dsarkar thanks for asking 🙂. As @Ein-Tim mentioned above, I think your OP already captures many important points.

@svengabr asked a similar question about half a year ago on the community Slack channel. Since then some of the things have been implemented, while others are still on the wishlist.

My personal favorite "venue registration/check-in" is still on the list. As I said back then, this issue is easily at the top of my wishlist b/c it has so many nice synergies: It can boost adoption b/c it provides a clear benefit to users and at the same time it could be in and of itself a very effective tool in the fight against Covid, by providing quick notifications in case of cluster infections.

I'm not sure what the status of voluntary data donation currently is. I'd definitely like to see some more options for users to voluntarily donate some data which could be helpful for research/epidemiological real-time assessment and improvement of CWA itself. This would need some discussion on what is possible in this context while staying within the privacy envelope but iirc this was one of the suggested ways how decentralized systems could make up for some of their shortcoming wrt efficiency compared to a centralized system (cf. here).

Another thing I'd like to see some movement on (and which you mention in your OP), is the Information on (hygiene) rules in different states as it has been proposed here: #151. The authors seemed to be quite enthusiastic about integrating this into CWA but since then I haven't heard anything new on this issue.

Something which was mentioned in the thread from half a year ago but afaik hasn't seen movement is the option to manage multiple QR codes (e.g. for ones children): #109

[MikeMcC399]

@daimpi

I'm not sure what the status of voluntary data donation currently is. I'd definitely like to see some more options for users to voluntarily donate some data which could be helpful for research/epidemiological real-time assessment and improvement of CWA itself.

According to https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-app-android/blob/release/1.13.x/Corona-Warn-App/src/main/res/values/release_info_strings.xml in the latest Android Release Candidate queued up for the 1.13.2 release there are two optional data donation sections:

1. Daily usage data: The app asks for your location in terms of one of the towns / cities / areas that RKI uses to group infection data by (optional) and your age group (optional) and sends daily data about exposures, warnings, test results and sharing of test results.

2. Survey: If you have an increased risk, you can start and take a survey conducted by the Robert Koch Institute from within the app.

The above two points were already listed as new features in v1.13.0-RC2 (EXPOSUREAPP-4321 and EXPOSUREAPP-4637) 10 days ago.

[ndegendogo]

@dsarkar thanks for asking.

My personal top-level are (in no specific order):

• some kind of family concept for lab results. Sure only one DEK upload per device will be possible. But just think of a family with small children, who is travelling. The children don't have each their own device. They want an easy and streamlined way to get all their lab results. And in case of infection: well, they have been together all the time, so just the parents send their keys.
• some kind of venue registration and/or cluster detection
• more info on reported encounters or risk level. What about giving the level as number, besides the red/green?
• better beta testing. For the known reasons.

[dsarkar]

@Ein-Tim @daimpi @ndegendogo @MikeMcC399 (I will answer your question later) Thanks for the detailed feedback!

1. This file contains the onboarding strings related to the Privacy-Preserving Data Donation (PPA): https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-app-android/pull/2319/files.
2. Event Registration: Event registration (feature-main-branch) (EXPOSURE-5062) cwa-app-android#2456

[KaiRoesner]

I think that's a great idea! A few additional remarks:

• If you introduce a "Top 10 Feature Requests" list the expectation will be that these feature requests are going to be picked up by development. Otherwise it doesn't make a lot of sense to have the list in the first place. Unless of course there are valid reasons for not implementing but these will have to be very well explained.
• You can either create the top 10 list from existing data (such as traffic etc. as you did in the OP) or have an explicit vote. In the latter case you will need to motivate people to vote and the best motivation is confidence that your vote matters - see first point!
• My personal favorite is the "Check-in functionality (Restaurants, shops, events)" and I'm cross posting from there why:

There is an app that does a similar thing, the Luca app. It has already officially been adopted in Jena (Thuringia), Salzlandkreis (Saxony-Anhalt), Sylt, Amrum, Föhr (Schleswig-Holstein), Schwerin (Mecklenburg-West Pomerania) and it is being discussed in Karlsruhe (Baden-Württemberg, BW) and even for state wide adoption in BW. The data protection officer of BW assesses the app as compliant with data protection regulations. The topic does seem to get some traction!

[alanrick]

Expectations...My personal favourite is also check-in, which was mentioned in the latest SAP/Telekom podcast so I hope it will be available soon and can be removed from your top 10.

Scepticism... before enhancing the contact diary, do we have metrics about what percentage use this at all? If not, I'd add anonymous metrics (opt-in) to the list.

Efficiency... This is still low, and at least anecdotally partly due to the OEGD/10C checkbox. I now understand that this is not a bug #475 but it nevertheless could be dramatically improved with server-side coding.

Active Contact Tracing... other EU apps include an opt-in (voluntary) phone number field to expedite the tracing process by health authorities. It doesn't seem to have impacted uptake of their apps.

[alanrick]

BTW... my intention wasn't to discuss items in detail here, but to show that the questions asked could be phrased generically.... E.g. "Integration with health-centers" or "Faster more reliable result-delivery from tests"

[Ein-Tim]

@KaiRoesner

A list sorted based on votes (thumbs up) can be found here: https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-wishlist/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+sort%3Areactions-%2B1-desc

[ndegendogo]

If you introduce a "Top 10 Feature Requests" list the expectation will be that these feature requests are going to be picked up by development. Otherwise it doesn't make a lot of sense to have the list in the first place. Unless of course there are valid reasons for not implementing but these will have to be very well explained.

@KaiRoesner my understanding of the purpose of this question, and the underlying process for the roadmap, is following:

• product owner for the road map is RKI resp. ministry of health. They provide the budget, they decide which features are going to be implemented, and they setup the order and priorities for these features.
• the responsibility to communicate a roadmap, or why a specific feature is going to be implemented later, or not at all, is with the product owner = the ministry.
  Unfortunately they don't communicate much on github, but are using their own communication channels instead
• role of SAP as project maintainers is to make suggestions, and to give them input on feasibility, effort, and dependencies of suggested features.
• so the role of SAP here is rather as a contractor: take the money and deliver the requested features / improvements / bugfixes.
• role of us community is to provide ideas and feedback / input for such suggestions.

Yes, the setup is not so straightforward in a publicly budgeted open source project here in Germany.

I agree fully with your suggestions to setup some kind of poll / explicit vote, and to try to involve a wider part of the community.

[KaiRoesner]

Yes, the setup is not so straightforward in a publicly budgeted open source project here in Germany.

@ndegendogo , I'm aware of that and that setup has already been cause for irritation in the community time and again. I guess my point is mainly that it should be avoided to set up the project for more irritation.

(Disclaimer: I am with SAP but not involved in the CWA project.)

[ndegendogo]

that setup has already been cause for irritation in the community time and again

@KaiRoesner full ack. Also here on my side.
And this is the reason why I try to explain my current understanding here; in the hope that it helps also others to understand better the setup and its constraints.

I must confess, I have sometimes felt like in a Kafka story; one moment thinking I am being heard, only to discover that it's but still another intermediate relay... But I have seen suggestions and ideas from the community here at github being picked up, and this gives me hope.

[ndegendogo]

@dsarkar I forgot one: user options, e.g. individual finetuning the tradeoff for battery consumption, air time, and similar.

[MikeMcC399]

@dsarkar
Do you have any guidance about the framework for enhancements? You said in #375 (comment) that you were planning to answer this.

There is a statement on https://www.coronawarn.app/en/ which says:

"The Corona-Warn-App is an app that helps trace infection chains of SARS-CoV-2 (which can cause COVID-19) in Germany."

Is that still the complete mission statement for the app? Perhaps there are more detailed objectives / strategies / tactics descriptions which go with this?

Also, as I added to #258 (comment), it would be helpful to know what is already planned in up-coming versions.

[dsarkar]

@MikeMcC399 and dear community:

This project is three-fold in scope, and for the moment, that is my understanding, does not change:

• Transfer test results
• Contact tracing
• Warn contacts

Obviously, bug fixing and improvements have priority. Feature enhancements related to that scope will likely be evaluated and considered before new features. However, we have seen new features to be implemented within this scope, in particular, the contact journal and in a future release event registration. Other features are not that closely related to the scope: statistics, data donation for statistics and debugging, implementation of a RKI survey have also been widely proposed in the community and are or will be implemented. I.e. the closer the feature request/enhancement is to the scope the bigger the chance to be considered and implemented.

For example, regarding the contact journal, well within the scope of the app, quite a few enhancements suggested by the community will be implemented. I suspect that something similar will happen regarding enhancements of the functionalities concerning event registration, data donation, and survey.

Functionalities out of the scope, e.g. related to vaccination, are rather unlikely to be implemented IMHO, but there seems to be rather strong interest from the community in new features related to this topic, just to put one example. Anyway, yes, we forward all of the suggestions.

Nevertheless, the input and feedback from the community are communicated to the stakeholders, and I dare to say that there are examples that the community has been heard. A triviality to mention, but of course, there are common limitations (scope, time, budget, technical feasibility, legal), therefore not all can be done.

So, tactics?

• suggest feature enhancements within the scope
• suggest new features within the scope
• having said that, maybe for new features seemingly out of the scope, find an argument why they can be considered within the scope
• it does no harm at all, to propose out of the scope.

On a side note (I know that most here are aware of this, just in case somebody is not/forgets ;-) ): The devs do not decide what is done, but rather how (the technical part). @ndegendogo has pretty much summarized the process above in his comment.

[MikeMcC399]

@dsarkar
Thank you very much for your description in the previous post, which is very helpful!

• If the restaurant registration function is implemented, then I suggest you also consider supporting Android 5.x (see [Discussion] Android 5.0 (lollipop) Support cwa-app-android#1799). I'm unsure if supporting Android 5 is going to add significant download numbers to increase the usage of the app, but that could be different if the registration function is added.

• For the Android reproducible builds I don't know how many users would benefit from this. Would it even be usable given the app's reliance on the closed source Google Exposure Notifications System? I have never been able to run the complete app, when I have compiled it, without getting error code 39507. Like other community members, I do not have an "allowlisted Google account".

• It would help to know what features are already planned, so we could make suggestions aligned to these plans (roadmap).

• The community would like to be able to contribute earlier in the development cycle by having access to beta builds. Obviously that increases the workload on the developer side though, especially with the current short development cycle of 4 to 6 weeks between releases, so it might increase the quality, but slow down the delivery of features and fixes.

• App improvements to increase the proportion of positive PCR tests results shared to warn others should be followed.

• Process improvements to increase the success rate of getting more PCR test results delivered into the app should also be a focus, although these are less likely to be app enhancements.

• I made a suggestion in Integrate 116117.app in CWA for Corona Test #320 to link the 116117 app of the "General medical emergency service on telephone number 116117" into CWA. I still think this makes sense.

I'm not expecting vaccination organization to be covered by the app. This is quite fragmented due to the federal state level responsibility. RKI might consider reporting the vaccination statistics in the app though, which they already report upon in their daily situation reports. (See also https://impfdashboard.de/)

Also for the local rules, I don't expect this to be picked up, since there is already an the official Warn-App NINA https://www.bbk.bund.de/DE/NINA/Warn-App_NINA_node.html which covers this function.

[mfs12]

Definitely anonymous "Check-in functionality (Restaurants, shops, events)" is most important feature to ease living together!

[MikeMcC399]

@blnagain

Definitely anonymous "Check-in functionality (Restaurants, shops, events)" is most important feature to ease living together!

There was some draft documentation for this implementation published today. See
Event Registration DRAFT - Summary. 🙂

[ColdCactus]

CWA in US App-Stores

Yes, please - although anecdotal, my wife is from the United States and for various reasons has to continue using the phone and region settings she had before moving to Germany. We would be happy to both be able to use the app.

Many thanks for all the work you already put in! :)

[alanrick]

Where on earth did that feature request to add personal details to the app to generate a qr-registration-code come from? It appeared this week in my CWA and I don't see that request anywhere in this forum.

What advantage does it have generating the qr-code in the app rather than from the CWA web-site (linked from CWA) and screenshotting the code on my mobile for future use?

My querdenker friend spotted this after I'd persuaded him that the app contains no personal information :(

[jucktnich]

About what your talking, the rapid test profile or the event registration qr codes?

[alanrick]

@jucktnich sorry. I wasn't clear. The personal details are added in 2.21 for rapid tests. I can understand the convenience factor, but it confuses the anonymous nature of the app, is easily avoided using a hint instead, and lost me an ice cream in a bet.

[jucktnich]

@alanrick do you think/know, that there are persons who get confused by it, and think it's needed?

[alanrick]

My point being, here's a new (perhaps controversial) feature that was not in the top 10, or even in any of the wishlist items. Was it requested by Spahn or Wieler, or was it spontaneously added by a developer?

Download-reporting is currently the only way of telling if it was a good or bad decision, but I sure wish there was more transparency in the development process.

[ndegendogo]

My point being, here's a new (perhaps controversial) feature that was not in the top 10, or even in any of the wishlist items.

@alanrick actually, RKI and BMG are indeed the owners of cwa, and the only ones who decide about the features being implemented.
The developers can make suggestions, but in the end they just implement what is requested by RKI/BMG.
And the community input is the same. Just a suggestion, not more.

[ndegendogo]

@alanrick and for the support of any rapid test certificate / vaccination certificate or similar, it is unavoidable to add personal data.
Another argument why it might be preferable to cover such functions by a different app, separated from cwa.
See also this discussion :-)

[jucktnich]

In a RAT is also personal data and you'd need to put this into an extra app, and so I think, it does not make any sense. I think the better way would be a switch to activate an "privacy mode" wich stops all usage of personal data. (Sorry, dunno where this was first raised)

[larswmh]

Hello again dear community,

we appreciated your contribution and the results of this issue earlier last year and would once again like to ask you for your feedback and input on a list of most wanted features / enhancements for the Corona-Warn-App.

Examples that we think are important:

• Allow home-use rapid tests in order to warn other people faster, which could lead to an earlier isolation of potentially infected people (Warn contacts on positive home-use rapid test #374)
• Clear statement about whether a warning was ever sent after an exposure submission (Clear statement after exposure submission that others were warned #838)
• Reduce days stored in contact journal to 10 to match with exposure logging (Reduce contact journal amount of days stored to 10 #815)
• Add CovPassCheck-App functionality to check other peoples certificates to the Corona-Warn-App (Twitter Suggestion: Integrate functionality of the CovPassCheck-App into the Corona-Warn-App #633)
• As it has been technically implemented already, enable rapid PCR test & let testing stations submit rapid PCR test results (Enable POC-PCR (rapid PCR tests) feature of the CWA & let testing stations connect #861)
• Bulk import of certificates, which is useful e.g. when moving to another device (Certificate mass import #841)

[alanrick]

The CWA has been both revolutionary and effective as well as acting as a lighthouse for future software, particularly related to personal health and dealing with a pandemics. But I vote for sunsetting it now.

Sunsetting
a) mitigates the only negative aspect of the project (costs, especially the TAN hotline),
b) reduces the carbon footprint (perhaps, I'm not sure if the servers can be switched off without disrupting test centers)
c) reduces risk of an attack on the server infrastructure (e.g. spoofing positive results)

Other countries in Europe have already taken followed this path and it was made clear from the outset that this path would be taken eventually.

At the very least, I'd like to see effort put into a sunset plan that avoids disruption.

[ndegendogo]

@larswmh I vote for the two on your list that are related to the original and core function of cwa: warning others (especially anonymous contacts) and thus help to reduce spreading.

(1) include self-tests in the warning infrastructure. I am not sure about potential mis-use of this feature; but many people that I know don't go through an "official" test any longer. They have symptoms, they get a pos self-test, and then they just start self-isolation. Many of them would be willing to share their results and to contribute with their warning.

(2) same for those rapid PCR that you mentioned (never heard of them 😅) - not sure about the effort needed to spend on the infrastructure integration here. It seems that still not all labs for PCR testing are connected, or there are still hickups in the process ...