COVID-19 vaccination card can now be stored on phones for Android users, confirms Google

If you have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 then you will no longer have to carry a physical certificate to prove your vaccination status because Google is working on letting Android users store their vaccination certificate on their mobiles. Google on Wednesday had announced that it had updated its Passes API to enable a secure way to store COVID-19 vaccination certificate and COVID-test results on Android phones. This feature will be first rolled out for the users n the United States and it will then be expanded to other countries, it added. 

Google to allow Android users to store their COVID-19 vaccination card on their phone

Google blogpost said, "Google has updated its Passes API to enable a simple and secure way to store and access COVID vaccination and test cards on Android devices. Starting today, developers from healthcare organizations, government agencies and organizations authorized by public health authorities to distribute COVID vaccines and/or tests will have access to these APIs to create a digital version of COVID vaccination or test information. This will roll out initially in the United States followed by other countries."

Giving out further details, Google blogpost informed that once a user stores his COVID-related cards on his device, he will be able to access them via a shortcut on their device home screen. It further mentioned that the users will not require an active internet connection to access their COVID vaccination card. "Your Android device needs to be running on Android 5 or later and be Play Protect certified. It is not mandatory to install the Google Pay app to access COVID Cards," it added. 

Assuring that the information in the users' COVID card is not shared by Google with its third party services and for targeting ads, the search engine platform said that only the user can show his card to people and services it wants to. Remarking that Google will have no role to play here, the platform said that it will only help the user to store the vaccination card in the device.

Google said, "If you want to access your digital vaccine cards related cards on multiple devices, will need to manually store it on each device. Google said that it does not retain a copy of the user’s COVID vaccination or test information."

Informing that the users will have to set up a lock screen to store digital vaccine cards on a device, Google said that when a user wants to access his COVID card, he will be asked for the password, pin or biometric method set up for their Android device. "This is for added security and to protect the users' personal information," it added. 

(Image: Unsplash- Solen Feyissa)