The Indian government is no longer pursuing plans to have its Aadhaar app pre-installed on smartphones. The move had faced vehement opposition from Apple and Samsung after it was reported last month — coming on the back of a similar mandate for the Sanchar Saathi app.

According to a Reuters report, the Central government has decided not to go ahead with its proposal andating installment for Apple and Samsung. UIDAI told the publication in a statement that the IT ministry had reviewed the proposal and was “not in favour of mandating the pre-installation of ​the Aadhaar App on smartphones”. It did not provide a detailed reason for the change. The Unique Identification Authority of India also told Reuters in its statement that the IT ministry held a “consultation with stakeholders from the electronics industry” before reaching its decision to drop the Aadhaar preloading proposal.

Reports indicate that the Aadhaar request was the sixth time in two years that the government had sought to pre-install state apps on smartphones. A separate Reuters report from last month indicated that UIDAI had asked the IT Ministry to engage with Apple, Google and other leading smartphone makers in January.

What does mandatory pre-installation mean?

A mandatory installation of Aadhaar app would have ensured that all smartphones sold in India came with the biometric identity programme app. It would be added by the manufacturers (be it Apple, Samsung or another brand) similar to other pre-installed apps such as clock or calculator. Aadhaar is a unique 12-digit identity number tied to an individual’s fingerprints and iris scans — held by approximately 1.34 billion Indians and used widely for verification purposes in banking, telecom and other services.

Sanchar Saathi app row

The developments also come mere months after the Centre directed mobile phone manufacturers to ensure that its fraud reporting app ‘Sanchar Saathi‘ was pre-installed in all handsets within 90 days. The move had sparked vehement pushback from mobile companies and privacy concerns among users.