Telecoms sneaking in ‘stay home’ messages on smartphones

You can spot these messages, put in to promote social distancing right next to the connection signal symbols

Portrait of young woman on the street wearing face protective mask to prevent Coronavirus and anti-smog and using smartphone (Getty Images)

Some mobile phone operators, like Vodafone and Orange S.A., have started sneaking in coronavirus-related public health messages asking customers to stay indoors. Spotted on smartphones in certain countries, this is a small snippet that's placed right next to the connection signal symbol on the top left of the phone screen.

The first one was spotted by social media consultant Matt Navarra who posted examples on his Twitter account. According to Navarra's tweet, these messages started appearing on phones in Germany that were using Vodafone connections.  

Mobile phone operators in Germany show a #stayhome message when users switch off WiFi #coronavirus

ht Jannis Korner pic.twitter.com/IR197yCmvw

— Matt Navarra 😷 (@MattNavarra) March 24, 2020

Navarra's tweet saw a whole bunch of replies that showed similar messages showing up all over the world. Most people replied with screenshots that showed various versions of the 'stay home' message in various languages.

These included Romania ("Stamacasa"); Peru ("YoMeQuedoEnCasa"), Turkey ("EvdeKal"), and Indonesia ("DiRumahAja"). People in Belgium, France and Nigeria have also reportedly seen either the English versions of the phrase or in their native language, depending on the telecom service provider.

This message, in some places, shows up only when you switch off WiFi, like it happened for Germany, but is some others you can see it even with WiFi being on, like in Peru:  

Peru 🇵🇪 also pic.twitter.com/FcfbwWk8QE

— QUÉDATE EN CASA 🧼👏🏼 (@miguel__acf) March 24, 2020

 

Turkey 🇹🇷

Translation: There is a life at home pic.twitter.com/WfoT0i3QLY

— batu (@batuinn) March 24, 2020

 

🇮🇩 Indonesia too~
Provider by Telkomsel.
It means Just Stay at Home https://t.co/Cy88p8AZow pic.twitter.com/m5iA8EYvQE

— a/f (@alvinfnaldi) March 24, 2020

According to reports, these messages have also been spotted in India but we have not seen any yet. Earlier, telecom companies in the country had run a PSA before every call to spread awareness about covid-19.

It's not known if this message is a consolidated effort taken by all telecom service providers or if one company started it and others followed. However, it is a great use of this small, but vital, screen space that telecoms do have control over to promote public health.