The new mobile program through which government intends citizens will access a comprehensive range of departmental services is now open for widespread public download via the two major smartphone platforms
The new GOV.UK App has launched and is now available for citizens to download via the Apple and Google smartphone app stores.
The app is still in public beta mode – meaning significant development work is ongoing – but the initial launch will enable users to customise their homepage to “feature any combination” of 11 topics relating to different government service areas.
These areas are: benefits; business; care; driving and transport; employment; health and disability; money and tax; parenting and guardianship; retirement; studying and training; and travel.
Gathering on the homepage their own preferred collection of these topics – the details of which the government claims were informed by “major life events relevant to most of the population” – will “let people access these services right away, rather than having to scour the internet each time”, the government said.
Additional features to be added later this year will include the incorporation of GOV.UK Chat – a new chatbot powered by the large language model systems that underpin ChatGPT. The addition of this functionality “will help people get answers to niche questions more quickly, where the details important to them may be buried in the 700,000-page website” that is GOV.UK.
First launch in 2012, the government’s unified website is visited 88 million times each month – but, until now, has not been accompanied by an equivalent app. The launch of the tool is a move to “bring public services more in line with what people are used to when they bank or shop from their phones,” according to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the home of the Government Digital Service – which developed the app.
Technology secretary Peter Kyle said: “Our new GOV.UK App shows for the first time how this government is overhauling taxpayer-funded services as we deliver on our Plan for Change. By putting public services in your pocket, we will do away with clunky paper forms and hours spent on hold, so you can immediately get the information you need and continue on with the rest of your day. This release of the GOV.UK App is just the start. Soon, you will be able to use it to ask GOV.UK Chat any question you like about government services, and get a reliable answer immediately. You will then get personal notifications, reminding you when your MOT is due or whether you need to register to vote, and then you will be able to closely track your childcare credits just as you do your bank account.”
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Access to the GOV.UK App will be enabled by the GOV.UK One Login sign-in system currently being deployed throughout government. DSIT claimed that, as well as helping to tackle fraud, One Login will also “ultimately remove the need for several passwords to access different government services and users will be able to use facial ID to log in”.
The rollout of the software into a full public beta comes following a private beta phase conducted earlier this year in which 5,000 people were invited by GDS to test the system. Plans for a government-wide app were first announced in October 2021, and the tool was originally due to be launched by the end of the following year.
PublicTechnology exclusively revealed last summer that – ahead of an intended summer 2025 release date – the final stages of development work would focus on ensuring that the program could fulfil nine “core functions”:
- Identity – including the ability for users to log in, then manage an account and their personal preferences
- Store – covering the provision of a digital wallet for credentials and certifications
- Read – a mailbox for messages and other communications
- Ask – incorporating search, chat and navigation services
- Apply – allowing users to make digital applications, renewals and registrations
- Book – for booking appointments, and providing calendar services and reminders
- Approve – enabling citizens to provide consent, sign documents, and verify information
- Notify – covering reminders, alerts, and other proactively provided information
- Pay – including one-off payments, as well as regular or automated payments
