Notify: A trusted and unified platform for Government-to-Citizen notifications
How we get our notifications today
At present, government agencies rely on the use of physical letters, emails, and SMS to send notifications and reminders to citizens. These include checking of SG Bonus and voter status, updates on dengue outbreak and personal tax filing matters.
However, these communication channels may not always work well. Physical letters can be mailed to the incorrect addresses due to outdated records or postal delivery errors. SMS may be sent to the unintended recipient when phone numbers are recycled.
Emails may be free and have good delivery metrics, but they can be easily spoofed. As hackers are becoming more tech-savvy, phishing emails can look almost identical to legitimate ones. It is increasingly difficult for citizens to identify a phishing email.
Further to that, these traditional delivery methods share a common drawback. Once the message is delivered, it is difficult for government agencies to check if the intended recipient has received it.
Introducing Notify
We have rolled out a notification platform Notify under Singapore’s national digital identity. Notify enables citizens to receive prompt notifications from various government agencies through a unified touchpoint — the SingPass Mobile app. The app also serves as a trusted and authentic source, where only Government agencies are able to send out notifications to intended recipients.
Looking inwards, having a single trusted notification channel can eliminate the need for each agency to have their own separate SMS, email, or physical letter delivery service. This enables agencies to enjoy cost savings and higher efficiencies in their business processes.
How has Notify been used so far?
We soft-launched Notify during the 2019 National Day Rally. Invitees received their event registration notification directly in their SingPass Mobile Inbox, as pictured below.
Since then, we have been collaborating with agencies to send transactional and informational notifications to citizens, such as traffic fine reminders and pre-school affordability messages.
As part of the SafeEntry digital check-in system to combat COVID-19, Notify has also been implemented in the SingPass Mobile app to send check-in passes to the user when SafeEntry check-ins are done.
What’s next?
We’ve received over 180,000 responses through our Inbox survey since Notify was made available from July 2019 onwards.
Some of the frequently requested types of notifications:
- 86%: Benefits & eligibility status
- 84%: Notification of upcoming expiry dates
- 82%: Bills and assessment notices
- 82%: Official government announcements
- 64%: Fines and other offences
We want to thank everyone for taking the time to share their thoughts. It’s good to know what citizens hope to see in the next iteration of Notify. Our team will continue to work with agencies to push out more relevant notifications to citizens via SingPass Mobile so do download the app and try it out today!
