RIA spokesperson Kadri Masing said that the agency is searching for a contractor to develop and build the national mRiik app, which can work on the mobile app.

The design and development tender requires that the mobile app incorporates eesti.ee services for people and their families, such as health, prescriptions, pensions, allowances, education, transport, housing and real estate, wills and inheritance, notarial documents, hunting and weapons, private individuals as employers, and maintenance assistance.

The application should also interface with the Land Board's Geoportal map application, the election map application, and the Estonian virtual assistant Bürokratt, a network of chatbots on the websites of public authorities.

At the same time, a pan-European identity tool – the Digital Wallet or EU Wallet – is also in the work. The EU tool will verify people's identity and digitally sign and validate personal data both nationally and across the EU.

The digital wallet is expected to be rolled out in Europe from 2026, following the introduction of the new digital identity framework.

Masing said that at the request of the European Commission, the RIA will also develop an open source prototype of the EU mobile application, with technical and other requirements to be defined after the legislation is implemented. Each country will be able to provide its own identity container to its citizens.

However, it is still unclear how these two mobile applications under development will interact: the EU mobile application and the national Estonian mobile application.

"The [EU] technical solution is also being developed by the RIA, and how the two solutions can be integrated in the future will become clearer as work progresses," Masing said.

Speed is the most important criterion

It is noteworthy that 75 percent of the evaluation criteria for the procurement of design and development services are comprised of the time required to complete the project. A quarter of the total cost of the tender is allocated to this.

However, according to the guidelines set forth by the Estonian Association of Information Technology and Telecommunications (ITL) regarding public procurement of software development, pace ought not to be considered as a criterion for evaluation.

"Execution speed is a poor quality criterion that we strongly advise against incorporating into the evaluation process," the document states.

Heiter: New solution saves resources

Joonas Heiter, deputy director general of the RIA, said that in developing mRiik, the RIA's goal is to make the application fit into the existing solutions of the Estonian e-state, as the Estonian eesti.ee portal works very well.

"The pilot application used a completely separate business and technical process to roll out in the country's e-services mobile app. Continuing with such a solution would mean maintaining two parallel business and technical processes for the future roll-out of the same services on the state portal and the mobile app, which is not reasonable in the long term," he said.

Heiter said the new technology will allow simultaneous building of additional services on the government portal and mobile app throughout development.

"To provide a consistent user experience, we are developing the state portal and mobile app around a common set of principles. We are also centrally building a state mailbox, credential management information system, consent service, data tracker, and event services platform that can be used in the mobile app in the future," he said.

Heiter said that this means services with the same user experience for end-users and lower management and development expenses for service owners, while two parallel solutions would have been resource-inefficient.

On Thursday, Minister of Economic Affairs and Information Technology Tiit Riisalo (Eesti 200) told ERR that the mRiik app will receive €1.2 million.

The Ministry of the Interior has sent a draft amendment to the Identity Documents Act for approval, which also provides for the necessary steps for the introduction of the mRiik application.

The amendment will legalize mRiig identity verification, putting it on par with physical document verification.

The national mobile app on a smartphone lets you use public services and prove your identity in Estonia. The app will be Android and iOS compatible. Mobile or smart IDs are needed to access e-services and establish your identity.

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