Aadhaar is slowly becoming a vital part of our lives. You’re expected to link Aadhaar with your mobile number, and by the end of 2017, you must link it with bank account as well.
To make things easier for you, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the team behind Aadhaar, has designed an app – mAadhaar – that ensures you don’t have to carry the hardbound Aadhaar card everywhere you go.
The app is available on Google Play Store (supports Android 4.4 KitKat or more), and make sure you download the app which is made by UIDAI, as there are multiple fake apps strolling around there. So, what does the mAadhaar app offer and how does it work? Let’s find out.
How to Use mAadhaar app?
As stated above, download the real app from Google Play Store.
Once you do that, the app will ask you to register for a password (8 characters) that’ll be the fulcrum to how one uses this app in the future. Make sure you put a foolproof password that won’t be easy to hack into.
- Download the app
- Register account with password
- Put your 12-digit Aadhaar number
- Confirm via OTP received on mobile number registered with Aadhaar
What Does mAadhaar app Offer?
As the name suggests, mAadhaar app lets you digitise the Aadhaar card, which can be used for various purposes. You can use the mAadhaar app to lock their biometric that have been provided with Aadhaar.
Once a user locks their biometric, they cannot use it for verifying purpose until they manage to unlock/disable it. That’s not all, the most important feature that mAadhaar promises is the E-KYC (electronic know your customer) process, which has become the norm for user verification nowadays.
You can share Aadhaar information for E-KYC in the form of QR code with vendors who support this feature.
How Does it Fare?
During our brief time with the app, we’ve faced multiple failures connecting with the central database, from where the app verifies user’s identity. Using this app means you have no option but to link your mobile number with Aadhaar, or else there’s no point of using mAadhaar in the first place.
The app is a step in the right direction, but nobody knows how UIDAI is making sure that the app is secured, and whether it will survive any efforts of mobile hacking. mAadhaar is a work in progress app, which becomes evident because iOS is yet to get its version, and we know how stringent Apple can be while registering apps to its app store.
(We all love to express ourselves, but how often do we do it in our mother tongue? Here's your chance! This Independence Day, khul ke bol with BOL – Love your Bhasha. Sing, write, perform, spew poetry – whatever you like – in your mother tongue. Send us your BOL at bol@thequint.com or WhatsApp it to 9910181818.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)