On 29th June, 2018, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted two links which claimed that ‘Passport Seva mobile App’ which has been ‘recently’ launched by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), has already registered 1 million downloads.
Passport Seva mobile App launched recently by the Ministry of External Affairs recently has already registered 1 million downloads. https://t.co/P2sQEGWETp
— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) June 29, 2018
In fact, one link by Indian Express also claimed that the app had 1 million downloads in ‘two days’ of its launch.
1 million downloads in two days: Sushma Swaraj’s passport seva mobile app a big hit https://t.co/GZGy5jkasL via @IndianExpress
— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) June 29, 2018
Two days prior, on 26th June, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar had tweeted a picture of ‘launch’ of Mobile Passport Application on Passport Seva Divas.
Another step towards simplification of passport service to people! EAM @SushmaSwaraj and MoS @Gen_VKSingh launched Mobile Passport Application on the occasion of Passport Seva Divas. pic.twitter.com/PG5Djq3HZf
— Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) June 26, 2018
Many people on Twitter also raised doubts about the number of downloads of the app.
Madam, I know you will block me for asking this, but please answer, mPassport Seva app was launched in 2013, Play Store is showing 1 million+ downloads in this 5 years, so how can it become 1 million downloads in two days? There were no downloads before this for the app? https://t.co/ZxqcYpE4r5
— Raju Das | ৰাজু দাস (@rajudasonline) July 3, 2018
Minister claims passport seva app “recently launched” by @MEAIndia has “already registered 1 million downloads”.
Facts-
1) App launched in July 2013
2) >1 lakh downloads by June 2014
3) >5 lakh downloads by Feb 2016
4) TOTAL downloads since launch i.e. 2013 is 1 million+Contd. pic.twitter.com/JS2RAJ69Zp
— Spaminder Bharti (@attomeybharti) July 3, 2018
As pointed out by Twitter user @attomybharti above, the app in question, mPassport Seva was launched in March, 2013 and available on Android platform in July, 2013.
The status in June 2014 shows app download range between 1,00,000 – 5,00,000.
The status in February 2015 shows app download range between 5,00,000 – 10,00,000.
And currently, the total downloads stand at 1 million. Which means, the total downloads of the app since its launch in 2013 (not last week as claimed by MEA in her tweet and publications like Tribune and Indian Express) stands at 1 million+.
That means, the download figure of the app could be anything between 1 million to 5 million, the exact figure can only be known by the developers, in turn, the ministry.
While we are not refuting the claim that the app has been downloaded 1 million times on the Google PlayStore, it was not ‘launched’ on 26th June, and it certainly did not reach the milestone in 2 days. Perhaps what the minister launched that day was an update of the app. Which also means, unless the Tribune and Indian Express filed their reports based on the developer data provided by the developer, the ministry, and not the publicly available data on the PlayStore, the story is most likely false.
Only the MEA could provide the exact details about the recent downloads.
