UIDAI Launches Aadhaar Face Authentication SDK and Sandbox

• 10 Sep 2026
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On 9 September 2026, the Unique Identification Authority of India launched Aadhaar Face Authentication SDK (Software Development Kit) and Aadhaar Face Authentication Sandbox at Global Fintech Fest 2026. This development will allow ecosystem partners to integrate, test and deploy Aadhaar Face Authentication more smoothly within their digital applications.

About Aadhaar Face Authentication SDK

The Aadhaar Face Authentication SDK integrates UIDAI’s Face Authentication capabilities directly into native Android and iOS applications. Due to this, the need for users to switch between different apps gets eliminated. It provides a smoother as well as a more seamless authentication experience within a single application. This ready-to-use SDK simplifies integration process for ecosystem partners and features AI/ML-based liveness detection and anti-spoofing technologies. 

It also ensures secure handling as well as encryption of authentication data. It is designed to function across various consumer smartphones. The SDK aims to help government departments, banks, fintech companies and other organizations to efficiently deploy services enabled with Face Authentication. 

About Aadhaar Face Authentication Sandbox

The UIDAI has launched Aadhaar Face Authentication Sandbox alongside SDK. This secure and controlled environment allows organizations to integrate, test and validate the entire Face Authentication process before going live. The Sandbox lets developers and quality assurance teams to test crucial stages, including user provisioning and consent, face capture, liveness checks, authentication, error handling and response validation without needing external biometric hardware. 

The new SDK and Sandbox facilitate testing of failure scenarios, such as invalid digital signatures, network interruptions, timeouts and spoofing attempts. Their introduction addresses a longstanding need in fintech and banking sectors for a seamless as well as secure user onboarding experience directly within a bank or fintech organization's mobile application. 

This innovation makes user journey way simpler. Now, users only need to download a single app, whether it's for banking, insurance or broking, and then, they can complete Aadhaar authentication directly within that app. 

Previously, users had to rely on a separate background app called FaceRD. This app extended onboarding process and required presence of Aadhaar FaceRD app. With this launch, dependency on multiple apps for Aadhaar Face Authentication is greatly reduced. 

Adoption of UIDAI’s Face Authentication Solution 

UIDAI's indigenously developed AI/ML-driven Face Authentication solution was launched in 2021. Since then, it has processed over 500 crore transactions and been adopted by nearly 200 entities. These include various Union Government ministries and departments, State Governments, banks, non-banking financial companies, telecom operators, brokerage firms and certifying authorities. This technology received Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration 2023 in Innovation category.

Face Authentication is widely utilized across various services, such as submission of Digital Life Certificates (Jeevan Pramaan) by pensioners, onboarding of Ayushman Bharat beneficiaries, Direct Benefit Transfer schemes, Aadhaar-enabled payments, SIM activation through e-KYC and beneficiary authentication for initiatives like PM e-Drive, PM Awas Yojana and PM Kisan. 

In addition, UIDAI introduced a Playbook on Ease of Onboarding designed to serve as a guide for BFSI entities to navigate UIDAI authentication ecosystem for verifying identities of their customers, staff and other business partners. 

Source:- Ministry of Electronics & IT