New app uses artificial intelligence to tell if your cough is Covid-19

The Hyfe app allows users to cough into their mobile phone microphone to make an estimated diagnosis.

The tech cannot replace a doctor or diagnostic tools to properly diagnose and treat patients.

However, the co-founder of Hyfe, Joe Brew, believes the tech has the potential to prevent Covid-19 and TB outbreaks.

Mr Brew said they were working on the technology when the pandemic hit.

"In general, it's very hard to keep track of coughing. In some of our studies, people who professed to be asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic for Covid turned out to have symptoms," he said.

"They were coughing for several days and didn't notice. Our hypothesis is that coughs really matter, and if you know when you cough or what it could be an indicator of, you can do something about it."

The free-to-download app offers an option to track coughs through the day, week, month or year.

Users can monitor a loved one's cough and can grant permission to share data.

Users cough into the phone microphone and the app analyses the cough.

The plan is that the user then alerts their doctor and has a record of coughing.

"The idea of acoustic epidemiology is nothing new," Mr Brew said.

"They ask you to describe a cough and assess is it dry or forced. I believe acoustic coughing is going to become a very important tech.

"People never used to monitor how many steps they took each day, but now that's something a lot of people do."