The $9 million COVIDSafe app has officially been decommissioned, after proving next to useless in identifying potential cases.

Former PM Scott Morrison described the app as “the ticket to ensuring we can ease restrictions” upon its April 2020 launch.

The app was downloaded seven million times, but soon faced criticism of failing to stop the spread or identify positive cases.

As of yesterday, the app is no longer available.

“The app is no longer being used in contact tracing. This update removes functionality of the app, so no information is stored or collected. This will enable decommission process of COVIDSafe,” a note on Apple’s app store says.

A study by UNSW and the University of Queensland found, in a six month period between May and November 2020, the app found just 17 additional close contacts that weren’t initially identified through NSW Health’s own contact tracing.

“In our study, COVIDSafe did not make a meaningful contribution to the COVID response in NSW during 2020. Instead, the app created a high workload for no clear benefit,” the researchers concluded.