Background Mobile health (mHealth) apps have played an important role in mitigating the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) response. However, there is no resource that provides a holistic picture of the available mHealth apps that have been developed to combat this pandemic. Objective Our aim is to scope the evidence base on apps that were developed in response to COVID-19. Methods Following the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines for scoping reviews, literature searches were conducted on Google Search, Google Scholar, and PubMed using the country’s name as keywords and “coronavirus,” “COVID-19,” “nCOV19,” “contact tracing,” “information providing apps,” “symptom tracking,” “mobile apps,” “mobile applications,” “smartphone,” “mobile phone,” and “mHealth.” Countries most affected by COVID-19 and those that first rolled out COVID-19–related apps were included. Results A total of 46 articles were reviewed from 19 countries, resulting in a total of 29 apps. Among them, 15 (52%) apps were on contact tracing, 7 (24%) apps on quarantine, 7 (24%) on symptom monitoring, and 1 (3%) on information provision. More than half (n=20, 69%) were from governmental sources, only 3 (10%) were from private organizations, and 3 (10%) from universities. There were 6 (21%) apps available on either Android or iOS, and 10 (34%) were available on both platforms. Bluetooth was used in 10 (34%) apps for collecting data, 12 (41%) apps used GPS, and 12 (41%) used other forms of data collection. Conclusions This review identifies that the majority of COVID-19 apps were for contact tracing and symptom monitoring. However, these apps are effective only if taken up by the community. The sharing of good practices across different countries can enable governments to learn from each other and develop effective strategies to combat and manage this pandemic.

BACKGROUND Mobile health (mHealth) apps have played an important role in mitigating the COVID-19 response. However, there is no resource that provides a holistic picture of what are the available mHealth apps that have been developed to combat this pandemic. OBJECTIVE Our aim was to scope the evidence base on apps that were developed in response to COVID-19. METHODS Following the PRISMA guidelines for scoping reviews, literature searches were conducted on Google Search, Google Scholar and PubMed using the country’s name as keywords, and “COVID-19”, “coronavirus”, “contact tracing”, “symptom monitoring”, “information providing apps”, “mHealth” and “mobile apps”. Countries most affected by COVID-19 and those that rolled out COVID-19-related apps first were included. RESULTS Thirty-nine articles were reviewed from 15 countries, resulting in a total of 25 apps. Among them, 14 apps (56%) were on contact tracing, 7 (28%) on symptom monitoring and one (4%) on information provision. More than half (64%) were from governmental sources, while one-quarter (24%) were from private organizations/universities. Four apps (16%) were available on either Android or iOS, but 6 (24%) were available on both platforms. Nine apps (36%) used Bluetooth for collecting data, 7 apps (28%) used Global Positioning Systems, while 12 (48%) used other forms of data collection. CONCLUSIONS This review has identified that majority of COVID-19 apps were for contact tracing and symptom monitoring. However, these apps are effective only if taken up by the community. The sharing of good practices across different countries can enable governments to learn from each other and develop effective strategies to combat and manage this pandemic. CLINICALTRIAL NA