Google has expanded the digital ID capabilities of Google Wallet to four new countries, introducing Aadhaar Verifiable Credentials in India and passport-based ID passes in Singapore, Taiwan, and Brazil, in one of the largest mobile identity wallet rollouts to date.
In India, Aadhaar Verifiable Credentials can now be saved directly in Google Wallet on a mobile device. Built through a partnership with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the integration allows services to receive digitally signed credentials tailored to specific use cases such as age verification at cinemas or identity checks at hospitals. The system uses selective disclosure, meaning only the details required for a given transaction are shared rather than the full Aadhaar record. All credential data is stored on the device rather than on Google’s servers.
Early partners for the Indian rollout include PVR INOX for age verification at movie theatres, BharatMatrimony for verified profile matching, and Atlys for auto-filling visa applications. Each verification request requires explicit permission before any personal data leaves the device.
For Singapore, Taiwan, and Brazil, Google is rolling out ID passes, a feature that creates a secure digital credential derived from passport information and stores it in Google Wallet. The passport-based pass is designed to streamline everyday identity verification without requiring a physical document, covering scenarios from hotel check-in to account registration.
The expansion builds on Google’s existing mobile ID infrastructure, which already supports mobile driver’s licenses and state IDs in parts of the United States. Google says the tools are built on global open standards including the W3C Verifiable Credentials specification and the ISO/IEC 18013-5 mobile driving licence standard, with privacy features such as selective disclosure and on-device storage at their core.
With more than 1.4 billion Aadhaar registrations in India alone, the UIDAI partnership represents one of the largest wallet-based digital ID integrations globally. The four-country rollout intensifies competition in the mobile credential space, where Apple supports driver’s licenses in Apple Wallet across a growing number of U.S. states and the European Union is preparing its EUDI Wallet ecosystem for continent-wide deployment. The race to become the default mobile identity layer is now playing out simultaneously across Asia-Pacific, the Americas, and Europe.
Sources: Google Blog, Business Today
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By the Mobile ID World Editorial Team
