Exclusive | ‘It was a great learning lesson’: DigiYatra CEO opens up about sudden migration of app

Digi Yatra app has made airport check-in process seamless for thousands of travellers in India since its launch in December 2022. However, recently, users were taken by surprise when their apps stopped working. Simultaneously, a new Digi Yatra app that looked authentic but still had low ratings appeared on Play Store and App Store. Since there was no smooth transition and no notice from the original app, users were left confused.

In an exclusive conversation with Tech Today’s Aayush Ailawadi, Digi Yatra Foundation CEO Suresh Khadakbhavi opened up about why they thought of creating a new app all of a sudden. He also talks about the learning lessons that came out of that situation.

He said that the app has grown at a rapid pace since its inception in 2022. However, the company never got a chance to sit down and think about how they can scale up to a volume that they have in India. But for that they needed a new app.

He explained, “For example, if I have to change a feature in the app. I don't have to push another full update on the app. I can just change the feature itself or I can turn on or turn off feature. All those things were not possible when we had built that MVP.” He adds, “I do agree that when we did that cut over, it was perhaps not the smoothest. But we did have our own learning lessons.”

He later revealed that they have rectified the situation by giving a prompt to move in the old app so that the users are aware. Khadakbhavi noted, “Now we have a sizable number of movement from the old app to the new app. We have around 2 million users on the new app out of 4.5 million who were using the old app."

For the unversed, Digi Yatra foundation has built this app under the Ministry of Civil Aviation to provide seamless airport access through facial recognition. The app offers faster check-in, security clearance and boarding. Available for Android and iOS users, this app is operational at 13 domestic airports in India across Delhi, Bengaluru, Varanasi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Vijayawada, Pune, Mumbai, Cochin, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Jaipur and Guwahati.

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