The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has launched an Aadhaar Face Authentication software development kit (SDK) and an Aadhaar Face Authentication Sandbox at Global Fintech Fest 2026.
The SDK is designed to bring UIDAI’s face authentication capability directly into native Android and iOS applications. This means users can complete Aadhaar face authentication within a bank, insurance or brokerage app without switching to a separate application.
According to UIDAI, the ready-to-use SDK includes artificial intelligence and machine learning-based liveness detection and anti-spoofing capabilities. It also supports secure handling and encryption of authentication data and is designed to work on consumer smartphones. The authority said the SDK could help government departments, banks, fintech companies and other organisations implement face-authentication-enabled services more efficiently.
The Aadhaar Face Authentication Sandbox provides a secure and controlled environment for organisations to integrate, test and validate the authentication process before deploying it in production. Developers and quality assurance teams can test user provisioning and consent, facial recognition, liveness checks, authentication, error handling and action-based verification without external biometric hardware. The sandbox also supports testing of scenarios such as invalid digital signatures, network disruptions, timeouts and spoofing attempts.
UIDAI said the launch addresses a long-standing demand from the banking and fintech ecosystem for a seamless onboarding process within an organisation’s mobile application. Previously, similar authentication experiences required the separate FaceRD app, which could make onboarding longer and dependent on that app’s availability.
UIDAI said its AI- and machine learning-based face authentication solution, developed in-house and launched in 2021, has processed more than 500 crore transactions. The system has been adopted by around 200 organisations, including central and state government bodies, banks, non-banking financial companies, telecom operators, brokerage firms and certification authorities.
The authority also launched a “Playbook on Ease of Onboarding” to guide banking, financial services and insurance institutions seeking to join the UIDAI authentication ecosystem for identity verification of customers, employees and other business partners.