This guide is for individuals going through a Persona-powered identity verification flow. While we’ve included helpful tips, the verification was set up by the business, service, or organization that asked you to verify. They use Persona as a tool, and they ultimately decide what’s required and can assist with your specific situation, if you’re having trouble.
Why an app, when a website would do
Sometimes a business chooses to run its verification through the Persona Wallet app rather than in a mobile browser. An app camera can generally capture a document more reliably than a camera inside a browser, and it sidesteps the permission problems browsers are prone to.
How you get there depends on the phone, and that is where the confusion usually comes from.
- On iPhone, the app opens as an App Clip. A card slides up from the bottom of the screen and the verification runs inside it. Nothing is installed and there is nothing to delete afterwards.
- On Android, there is no App Clip, so the same experience arrives as the Persona Wallet app itself. You install it from Google Play, then continue. It is the extra step iPhone does not have.
That is the whole reason for the difference. It is not that Android users are treated with more suspicion, and it is not an extra step you have been singled out for.
Businesses that want verification inside their own app use Persona’s iOS and Android SDKs instead, and you would never see the Wallet app in that case. If you are being asked to install something, this verification flow is the Wallet one.
What the app is
Persona Wallet is Persona’s own app, available on Google Play and the Apple App Store. It does two separate jobs, which is a common source of confusion:
- It hosts the verification you were sent to, when the business has chosen the native mobile experience.
- It can store a Persona Wallet, which is a saved set of your verified details that you can reuse in future flows. That part is yours, it is optional, and it is protected by a passkey on your device. See Creating and verifying with Persona Wallet.
Being asked to install it in order to verify does not mean you have to keep it or create a wallet. You can remove the app afterwards.
Check before you install anything
Installing an app because a message told you to is exactly the shape of a scam, so it is worth pausing here even though this particular request is genuine.
- Did you start this? You should have arrived from a link on the site or in the email of the business you are dealing with, not from a message that turned up unprompted.
- Is the publisher Persona? Check the developer name on the store listing before you install.
- Nobody should be on the phone with you. No employer, bank, or support agent will ever call or text asking you to verify on their behalf or while they wait. If that is happening, stop and hang up.
See Is this verification request real? if any of that is in doubt.
If you cannot install it
There are plenty of ordinary reasons: a work phone that blocks installs, a device without Google Play, not enough storage, or a phone too old for the current version.
- Free up storage and try once more. This is the most common cause of an install that will not finish.
- Check your connection, and prefer Wi-Fi for the download.
- Look for the option to continue in a browser. Not every flow offers one, but some do.
- Try a personal device if the phone you are using is managed by your employer.
- Contact the business that asked you to verify and tell them you cannot install the app. They set up the flow, and they can tell you whether there is another way to verify with them.
If the phone belongs to your employer, your IT team may be able to push the app to it for you. See I am verifying my identity for work.