VA Mobile App Surpasses 2 Million Downloads
In an online event on June 6, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Information and Technology (OIT) discussed the achievement of the VA Health and Benefits mobile application surpassing two million downloads. VA executives said veterans have embraced the app rapidly.
Charles Worthington, CTO and chief artificial intelligence officer with OIT explained that after the relaunch of the VA homepage in 2018, they observed that veterans were increasingly accessing VA websites from smartphones. This prompted the creation of the VA Health and Benefits mobile app. The app was soft launched in August of 2021. Since then, it has been downloaded over two million times and has over a million active monthly users.
“Veterans can log into the app using their face ID or fingerprint,” Worthington explained. This allows users to get right into the app, message healthcare providers, and check appointments and claim status. The app can use the phone’s camera to easily add documents to the VA instead of mailing documentation.
Christopher Johnston, deputy chief technology officer with OIT, added that push notifications are an intrinsic component of the mobile app, as users can instantly see whether a new message is waiting for them. “Today's veterans are very tech savvy,” he noted.
Rachel Han, product lead with OIT, emphasized the value of the fast experience the app offers veterans. “We want to make sure that this experience is really simple for everyone,” Han said. “We really put human-centered design and including accessibility at the center of that.”
“This team has been really intentional about leveraging the accessibility capabilities that are unique to both the Android and Apple operating systems,” Worthington remarked. “[O]ver 10 percent of all people that we've tested have been people that need assistive technology.”
Travis Partington, host of Oscar Mike Radio and a Marine Corps veteran, attested to the mobile app’s functionality in coordinating care and exchanging messages with his physical therapist (PT).
Worthington noted that the app currently has a 4.8-star rating in the Apple App Store and a 4.6-star rating with Google. Upcoming features may include travel claim submissions and improvements to the disability claim tool, Worthington mentioned.
