Ten years is a long gap between two posts. Let’s pick up exactly where we left off — with Aadhaar.

If the mAadhaar app on your phone has stopped behaving, you are not imagining it. UIDAI has officially discontinued mAadhaar from 30th June 2026 and wants every Aadhaar holder to move to its new Aadhaar App. The old app was mostly a place to keep your Aadhaar profile. The new one is built to actually prove who you are, without handing over a photocopy to a stranger at a hotel desk.

More than 3 crore people have already downloaded it.

What is different this time:

• Face authentication. The app matches your live face with your UIDAI photo. No fingerprint scanner needed.
• Selective sharing. You share only the field that is being asked for. A bar or a hotel needs to know you are above 18 — the app confirms just that, without showing your date of birth.
• QR based offline verification. The other person scans a code. Nobody queries the central database, nobody keeps a photocopy.
• Updates from home. Mobile number and address can be changed inside the app instead of standing in a queue at the enrolment centre.
• Biometric lock and up to 5 family profiles, in 13 Indian languages.

Here’s how you can switch:

• Download the Aadhaar App from the Google Play Store or the App Store. Check that the publisher is listed as UIDAI before you install anything.
• Open the app and pick your preferred language.
• Register with the mobile number that is linked to your Aadhaar, and enter the OTP you receive.
• Enter your 12 digit Aadhaar number and verify the second OTP.
• Complete the face authentication. Stand in good light and hold the phone at eye level — this is where most people fumble.
• Set a PIN, or turn on biometric unlock, and you are done.

Your old data is not lost anywhere. Nothing was sitting on mAadhaar that UIDAI does not already hold.

A few things to keep in mind:

• The app needs Android 9.0 and above, or iOS 16 and above. On an older handset it will simply not install.
• Your Aadhaar linked mobile number must be active. If you have changed your number and never updated it, update it first — otherwise the OTP goes nowhere.
• UIDAI will never call you asking for an OTP or asking you to install an app over a phone call. Every fake-app racket in this country starts with a helpful sounding phone call.
• Free online document update on myAadhaar has been extended till 14th June 2027, so there is no rush charge to pay.

If you are still carrying laminated photocopies of your Aadhaar in your wallet, this is a good week to stop.