A review of mobile applications developed by academics for COVID-19

Mobile applications have the characteristics of being available, acceptable, and easy to use. They offer a unique opportunity for remote communication in which to promote a social distancing strategy that has been taken to mitigate the rapid spread of COVID-19. Therefore, health organizations, governments, and academics have built mobile applications to potentially combat the pandemic. However, academics have made special efforts in the fight against the novel disease. The aim of this review is to explore the mobile applications being developed by academics to help manage the COVID-19 pandemic. To achieve this aim, firstly, the related applications were selected through conducting a search in the top indexed journals. Secondly, the goal of each app was identified. Thirdly, the technology used to achieve the app's goal was extracted. The review results revealed four goals for applications related to COVID-19, and eight technologies were utilised to achieve these goals. The significant finding of this review is that academics mostly depend on manual rather than automated data collection methods due to the users' concerns about protecting their privacy. However, they still face the challenge of unskilled users of smart phones especially older adults.