Greenpass EU

With an impressive 1.5 million downloads in the App Stores, the GreenPass App marks a standout chapter in the history of digital health applications. In this article, we, the team at winkk, want to share the story of this app, from its early days to the most recent developments.

The Birth of the GreenPass App

In the context of the global pandemic, it quickly became clear how essential it was to have reliable, secure, and user-friendly solutions for managing and verifying vaccination, recovery, and test statuses. The GreenPass App was designed to meet precisely this need.

It provided a digital record of Covid vaccination, recovery, and test certificates while also enabling country-specific validation within the EU. We were always aware that when dealing with such sensitive data, privacy is paramount. As a result, the app particularly met the highest standards in transparency and security and underwent two security audits. For this very reason, the entire source code of the project was made publicly available on GitHub.

Challenges and Triumphs

Despite substantial progress, there were setbacks: Apple initially rejected the app as it didn’t originate from a governmental institution. However, we weren’t disheartened. Shortly after, the app was approved by Google, but BRZ’s official app, “Grüner Pass,” was also released. Despite the competition from the official app, the GreenPass App was momentarily ranked number 1 on the Google PlayStore charts in the “Health & Fitness” category and hit 15k downloads. But the success was fleeting: the app was removed from the Google PlayStore the very next day.

Media Attention and Collaboration with the Red Cross of Upper Austria

After some turbulence and with the support of the Red Cross of Upper Austria, the app was eventually re-released in September 2021 for iOS and in January 2022 for Android. Since then, we’ve already surpassed 1.5 million downloads.

Recent Developments

It’s worth noting that our collaboration with the Red Cross of Upper Austria has been put on hold due to declining relevance. This decision resulted in the GreenPass App currently being unavailable in the App Stores. It was a challenging but fulfilling journey, taking the app from concept to widespread use. The feedback and recognition we’ve received have been overwhelming!

A New Chapter: winkk

Following the significant success and the experiences we gathered from the GreenPass App, Jakob, Kevin, and Hannes founded the company winkk. With the same passion and commitment that drove us in developing the GreenPass App, we are now poised to create new innovative solutions that enhance people’s lives. We want to thank everyone who supported and used the GreenPass App. It was an honor to contribute to addressing this global challenge, and we are excited about what the future holds for winkk!