Hu et al. developed a quantitative, point-of-care SARS-CoV-2 smartphone-read assay which utilizes CRISPR-Cas12a technology to enhance test sensitivity to viral load (without RNA isolation) present in the saliva. The authors evaluated their CRISPR-fluorescence detection system (FDS) assay against nasal and pharyngeal swab tests to gather insight on the time course and viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in a primate model. They found that their assay enabled a 15-minute signal-to-answer test incubation time and a level of detection of 0.05 copies/uL. The group suggests that saliva samples may be of particular diagnostic relevance due to their potentially higher sensitivity and stability than nasopharyngeal swab RT-qPCR tests. The CRISPR-FDS assay is adapted to chip format to test animal and patient saliva via smartphone, utilizing a smartphone-based fluorescence microscope device. CRISPR-FDS tests (smartphone and plate) were evaluated against RT-qPCR nasopharyngeal tests. While the smartphone test exhibited a 1.3% false positive result and the plate-based test exhibited a 2.3% false negative result, both saliva tests were in complete agreement with RT-qPCR swab samples.