Currently, the Indian Government provides "Digilocker" on Play Store and can be used to retrieve above documents as well as other 100+ types of other various government documents/certificates. Indian Government is providing API access for digilocker and as a result Samsung Wallet became one of the third party app to support Digilocker integration and now Google Files is going to be the second one.
I showed off the feature in action earlier on my telegram channel and how it works. But previously it was under work and hidden behind an unexposed flag which means that even users with root wasn't able to flip the switch with GappsMod. But with Google Files version 1.1232.565110651.1-release, the flag is now exposed which means this feature may go under beta testing first or Google may roll out to everyone in batches.
How it works
The Digilocker integration will appear under the "Documents" tab. The document tab is the place for storing your documents such as ID, passports, passes and certificates. The main categories are ID Cards, Travel and Health. Digilocker will have its own category/tab named "Verified". The Documents fetched from the official servers will have a purple checkmark on them which means they are verified and will have a "Verified" tag/category under details of that document. In addition to this you will be able to manually add the verified documents. Take driving license for an example, you just have to put you driving licence number and if it matches the linked aadhar/mobile number, it will be added. You can only store one verified document of each type because the a single digilocker account is connected to only person/mobile/aadhar number.
For the first time users, you will see a "Connect to Digilocker" banner under in "Verified" tab. Tapping on "Connect to Digilocker" will open the official digilocker website where you have to login with either your phone number or using aadhar card details. An OTP verification will be done. After OTP verification you will see a page where you have to grant permission to Google Files to let it access your documents.
Once you grant permission, it will fetch your Aadhar, PAN, COVID certificates and Driver licence (if you have them all connected to your mobile number/Aadhar Card). Since I don't have a driving license, my other documents were fetched successfully except that one. When you tap on a fetched verified document, you will see the exact document which you see in the official Digilocker app. You will be able to share it as well and it generates a PDF of the document to share
There is also a "Logout from Digilocker" button which will log you out from the Digilocker website and you have to login again in order to refresh or add new verified documents. Talking about the refresh option, it's under the 3 dots menu for each verified document. So you can fetch any new copy of the document if you have made changes in the document through official means such as changing name or any other personal identifiable information.
People who used the official Digilocker app know that it stores various other document other than the ones I mentioned above. In this case the Digilocker capability in Google Files is limited because it will only fetch the document I mentioned above not all of them such as your marksheets from schools or colleges. Well that's what I have seen and this thing may or may not change in future.
The annoying part!
So I have been testing the feature since some hours and the only annoying thing was that - the login expires after some time and when it expires, you can not access your verified documents. You have to login again on Digilocker website and grant access again. I hope this is just a bug and hoping it to be fixed. There is no such login expire issues with the official Digilocker app and I am not sure about Samsung Wallets behaviour regrading this thing.
Roll-out or beta test ?
I am not sure about this. Considering the thing is fully working as expected, Google can roll out in batches or beta test it because changelogs from the official listing of Google Files hints that "Important" tab is under beta testing for users in India.
Enable Digilocker if you have root
We have to use GappsMod app for this. I have written a detailed guide about GappsModFlags which you can read here if you didn't knew about GappsMod app before. To turn on digilocker in Google files
Package name -
com.google.android.apps.nbu.files.device#com.google.android.apps.nbu.files
Turn on the Flag -
Naagrik__is_digilocker_enabled
That's it, no force stop Google Files app two time to make the feature appear.
That's it for now. If you want to see more content like this on blog and the content which I don't post on blog, you can join my channel on telegram. :)
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