Ministry of the Interior and Safety and One Store Sign Business Agreement to Enhance Convenience of Public App Usage

Public Apps Now Downloadable Regardless of App Store

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] In the future, when using public apps created by the government or public institutions, users will have a wider range of app store options and be guided to useful public apps according to the season.

On the 17th, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced that it will undertake a comprehensive overhaul to improve the usability of public apps registered in app stores. They plan to address user inconveniences by standardizing the names, versions, and institution names of public apps.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety will have each institution develop public apps that can be used by both Android and iPhone users, register the latest versions on Google Play Store, One Store, Apple App Store, etc., and collect and guide various useful public apps according to seasons such as school admission and vacation periods to enhance usability.

Additionally, on the same day, the Ministry signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with One Store to improve the convenience of using public apps. One Store, which integrated app stores previously operated by SKT, KT, LG Uplus, and Naver, holds about an 18% share of the Korean app market. Some public apps were not registered on One Store, causing inconvenience to users, but with this agreement, all public apps are expected to be registered.

One Store plans to add easily recognizable labels to public apps so that users searching for public apps do not mistakenly download other apps with similar names and enter sensitive personal information. Furthermore, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and One Store agreed to cooperate on the rapid registration of public apps, convenient search functions, and utilization for overcoming disasters such as COVID-19.

Deputy Minister Lee Jae-young said, “Through this MOU, the range of service choices for public app users will expand, and the usability of public apps will improve. The government will continue to promote digital government innovation by improving the quality of public apps so that citizens can conveniently use administrative services non-face-to-face.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.