Digital Transformation Agency launches private beta of notifications platform

The Digital Transformation Agency has invited government agencies to participate in a private beta of its new Notify.gov.au platform.

The whole-of-government notifications platform allows messages to be pushed to out to users of government services. Examples could be reminders about appointments or the expiry of a document, or notifications of progress on an application.

Notify.gov.au will be available to Commonwealth, state, territory and local government entities, a DTA blog entry said.

“People make millions of calls and enquiries each year to government agencies to find out about the progress of their applications, payments and obligations,” the blog entry said.

“Through our user research, we found that people want to receive immediate updates on non-sensitive information through text message and/or email with small snippets of useful information.”

The private beta will be run until 30 June. Participating agencies will be able to send unlimited emails and up to 25,000 free text messages.

Notify.gov.au supports Java, Node.js and Python, and the DTA has indicated it is not yet ready to expose its REST API directly.

The new platform is part of the DTA’s effort to develop reusable “building blocks” for delivering “simple, common, non-business specific services”. The approach was formalised in the agency’s Digital Service Platforms Strategy released in December.

In addition to the notifications service, other projects that are intended to deliver platforms that can be employed across government include the GovPass digital identity platform, an enhanced version of myGov, an inbox service, and so-called ‘Tell Us Once’ capabilities that allow personal details of an individual to be shared (with consent) between government agencies. Tell Us Once is also in beta.

The DTA said that Notify.gov.au does not require any technical knowledge to use and allows the performance of messages to be tracked. Messages can be sent manually or automatically through the integration of a Notify API.