Election Commission's app review: Good features, will get better with time

The ECI Apps Suite aims to integrate, organise and streamline all the ECI web and mobile apps

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on December 15 launched an app suite to integrate, organise, and streamline all of its web and mobile apps and utilities under one mobile application.

Searchable as ‘ECI apps’ on Google’s Play store for download, this app suite provides all relevant information around the elections, national or state, in an intuitive and concise manner. The home screen consists of six self-explanatory icons -- electors, candidates, political party, media, election office and citizen. Apart from that, there are two sub-tabs on the bottom for information on Systematic Voters' Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) and for a video tutorial.

One issue that we noticed in the app was that not all features were functioning so far and there were tabs that would open blank screen or show nothing at all. Also, there were a few features that might require to download and install some additional files directly from ECI, so they require special permissions from users to install.

Another important thing that the app suite lacks is a search bar. There is no way you can search what you are looking for. Exploring each option to get what you need means it takes some time to find the information.

Keeping in view that the app suite was launched just a few days ago, it is safe to say that the features, overall, look polished and migth become better with time. 

"The ECI Apps suite has three broad key functions -- provide all the commonly used functionalities within the app, act as a store for various other apps which can be installed and uninstalled through the suite, and Act as a channel of communication proactively pushing relevant information to the various stakeholders," says the official app page on Play store.

Till now, the app has been downloaded by 100-500 users and, based on their feedback, the app carries an average rating of 4.4 on Google Play Store.

Also, the app can be downloaded only on devices running the Android platform and there is no news if the app will find its spot on other platforms like iOS, Windows, etc, anytime soon.

ECI app suite - Features