I’m going to be honest, I don’t know a single person who uses Selangkah over MySejahtera. I personally don’t use it for convenience sake, and the previous lack of integration definitely didn’t help things. However, all that is about to change as Selangkah is refreshing their app with a whole bunch of new features including a brand new dual-system scanning function.
The new Selangkah app (iOS, Android) comes with two sets of new features. These have been categorised into health and commercial verticals.
New health features
With the current landscape, the health vertical is centered around COVID-19 related improvements. For starters, and the thing that’s probably most appealing from the list of updates is the Dual System scanning. With this new feature, you can use the Selangkah app to scan both MySejahtera and Selangkah QR codes.
And it works really well, without any unusual delay. That said, one caveat I noticed is that it doesn’t sync the data with your MySejahtera account (if you have one), so you can’t view it later in your MySejahtera app history. If I had to guess, they probably created a separate entry with the details pulled from your Selangkah app. Still, you will be able to view your check-in histories in the Selangkah app, which is a neat new feature.
Besides that, if you don’t want to queue up or use your camera to scan any QR codes, the Selangkah app will also allow you to check in via GPS instead. That said, the check-in procedure seems a little awkward because the only way I’ve found is to tap on the QR scanning option, then closing the camera before I was given the option to check-in via GPS. On top of that, this looks like it will only work with locations registered with Selangkah, because the SoyaCincau office, which is registered in MySejahtera, doesn’t show up as a GPS location.
Besides that, Selangkah also added a new bulletin board feature that’ll display the latest updates from the government regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.
On top of that, the Selangkah app will also be the new home for the Selangor Community Screening. This is where users can sign up for upcoming events and check their COVID-19 test results. The developers are also adding a new R.S.V.P (Register and Sign up for your Vaccine Pack) feature for users with a Selangkah ID to register for COVID-19 vaccinations. I’m not entirely sure if the “new” acronym is smart or confusing, but I guess time will tell.
New commercial features
Over on the commercial side of things, the Selangkah app will now feature Selangkah Biz, which is a cashless solution that’s “designed for micro, small and medium enterprise merchants”. From what I understand, it’s kind of like an eWallet that enables businesses who have not registered for any eWallet services to receive eWallet payments from “any eWallet provider”.
While that sounds great, the service doesn’t seem to be working for me just yet. The pages are there, but you can’t really tap on anything so I haven’t had to chance to try it out. That being said, Selangkah will also be introducing Selangkah Pay which will allow you to pay for bills, summons and a bunch of other things right within the app itself. There will also be a Selangkah Wallet that will enable cashless payments as well as serve as a platform for users to receive government aid.
Besides Selangkah Biz, Selangkah is also introducing Selangkah ID, which the platform says is the “first digital ID in the country”. When enabled, it is supposed to be an integrated single-sign-on system that allows “users to access all of Selangkah’s features”. The ID will also allow users to transact as well as access government-related services as well.
This sounds pretty cool, because it sounds like the app will let you sign in to get access these various features without needing to create separate accounts for each. In theory, it should work kind of like the whole “sign-in with Google” works.
However, it’s worth noting that on the national level, the MCMC is also working on a Digital ID framework that should function pretty similarly.
The goal with this new Selangkah app is to have this be a “super app” that users can use to help transition towards a more digital society. But, with a lot of the features still under development, we’ll have to wait and see how the execution pans out in the long run.
What do you think about the new Selangkah app? Would you use it over something like MySejahtera? Let me know in the comments below.
