A First Look at the EU Age Verification App

17 Apr, 2026

This post was last edited 7 minutes ago.

On 15 April 2026, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, gave a press conference in which she stated that:

Our European age verification app is technically ready and soon available for citizens to use.

Here are the video and the written statement of the press release.

With some help from Privacy Guides forum users, I was able to download the APK and try the app—still in testing phase—out for myself.

The latest release can be found on Github.

Here are some screenshots of the procedure EU citizens will likely be presented with:

Note: the two links above currently take you to example.com.

Passport option:

Token/QR Code option:

After closing the app:

Verification scan:

Settings:

Thoughts

Having used identification apps in the past, I know that these can be a headache:

setting up your ID online doesn't always work, and this can lead to stress and frustration, as you're essentially locked out of key services, like bank accounts or tax forms
it is assumed you have a smartphone and that you'll have it with you at all times
it is yet another step between you and the shop or content you want to access, making being online more, not less cumbersome

It is good that the app seems to be developed as an open source piece of software, and it would be great to see it available on an app store like F-Droid. However, I have also seen suggestions to make the app reliant on existing commercial app stores (Google) which would be a terrible scenario. I am hopeful that the EU is learning its lesson regarding reliance on non-EU Big Tech and won't go in that direction for convenience's sake.

Lastly, there is the issue of trust. In the press statement, Von der Leyen says:

Put simply, it is completely anonymous: users cannot be tracked,

but how can regular users know that this is really true, and more importantly, that it will always remain true?

Being subjected to repeated false assurances from both Big Tech and governments (NSA) in the field of privacy has made many of us jaded about such claims, not to speak of all the security breaches we hear about almost daily now.

It will be interesting to follow these developments and see how companies, organisations and online platforms will respond—is a discussion about euthanasia on a forum suitable for 'adults only', for example, and will someone who wants to read and contribute to the discussion first need to verify their age with the app?

The main concern I would have is that, increasingly, it seems that carrying a smartphone with you is no longer a personal choice. It is ironic that the EU Commission is now introducing a verification method by which its citizens must have their smartphones with them all the time.