Posted by Rohey Livne – Group Product Supervisor
In at present’s interconnected world, managing digital id is important. Android goals to assist open requirements that guarantee seamless interoperability with numerous id suppliers and providers. As a part of this purpose, we’re excited to announce that Android, through Credential Supervisor’s DigitalCredential API, now natively helps OpenID4VP and OpenID4VCI for digital credential presentation and issuance respectively.
What are digital credentials?
Digital credentials are cryptographically verifiable paperwork. The most typical rising use case for digital credentials is id paperwork resembling driver’s licenses, passports, or nationwide ID playing cards. Within the coming years, it’s anticipated that Android builders will develop progressive functions of this expertise for a wider vary of non-public credentials that customers might want to current digitally, together with schooling certifications, insurance coverage insurance policies, memberships, permits, and extra.
Digital credentials might be supplied by any put in Android app. These apps are often known as “credential holders”; sometimes digital pockets apps resembling Google Pockets or Samsung Pockets.
Different apps not essentially regarded as “wallets” might also have a use for exposing a digital credential. For instance an airline app would possibly need to provide their customers’ air miles reward program membership as a digital credential to be offered to different apps or web sites.
Digital credentials might be offered by the consumer to some other app or web site on the identical system, and Android additionally helps securely presenting Digital Credentials between units utilizing the identical trade commonplace protocols utilized by passkeys (CTAP), by establishing encrypted communication tunnels.
Customers can retailer a number of credentials throughout a number of apps on their system. By leveraging OpenID4VP requests from web sites utilizing the W3C Digital Credential API, or from native apps utilizing Android Credential Supervisor API, a consumer can choose what credential to current from throughout all obtainable credentials throughout all put in digital pockets apps.
How digital credentials work
Presentation
To current the credential, the verifier sends an OpenID4VP request to the Digital Credential API, which then prompts the consumer to pick a credential throughout all of the credentials that may fulfill this request. Be aware that the consumer is deciding on a credential, not a digital pockets app:
As soon as the consumer chooses a credential to proceed with, Android platform redirects the unique OpenID4VP request to the digital pockets app that holds the chosen credential to finish the presentation again to the verifier. When the digital pockets app receives the OpenID4VP request from Android, it could actually additionally carry out any further due-diligence steps it must carry out previous to releasing the credential to the verifier.
Issuance
Android additionally permits builders to challenge their very own Digital Credentials to a consumer’s digital pockets app. This course of might be accomplished utilizing an OpenID4VCI request, which prompts the consumer to decide on the digital pockets app that they need to retailer the credential in. Alternatively, the issuance may very well be accomplished instantly from inside the digital pockets app (some apps may not even have an express consumer dealing with issuance step in the event that they retailer credentials primarily based on their affiliation to a signed-in consumer account).
Over time, the consumer can repeat this course of to challenge a number of credentials throughout a number of digital pockets apps:
Be aware: To make sure that at presentation time Android can appropriately checklist all of the credentials that digital pockets apps maintain, digital wallets should register their credentials’ metadata with Credential Supervisor. Credential Supervisor makes use of this metadata to match credentials throughout obtainable digital pockets apps to the verifier’s request, in order that it could actually solely current a listing of legitimate credentials that may fulfill the request for the consumer to pick from.
Early adopters
As Google Pockets introduced yesterday, quickly customers will be capable of use digital credentials to get well Amazon accounts, entry on-line well being providers with CVS and MyChart by Epic, and confirm profiles or id on platforms like Uber and Bumble.
These use circumstances will reap the benefits of customers’ digital credentials saved in any digital pockets app customers have on their Android system. To that finish, we’re additionally completely happy to share that each Samsung Pockets and 1Password will maintain customers’ digital credentials as digital wallets and assist OpenID requirements through Android’s Credential Supervisor API.
Be taught extra
Credential Supervisor API lets each Android app implement credential verification or present credentials on the Android platform.
Try our new digital credential documentation on the right way to change into a credential verifier, benefiting from customers’ current digital credentials utilizing Jetpack Credential Supervisor, or to change into a digital pockets app holding your individual credentials for different apps or web sites to confirm.
