The Time magazine chose the Ukrainian Diia app’s online marriage service to be one of the best inventions of 2024, its website reported on Oct. 30.
For more than two decades, Time editors have annually spotlighted the most influential new products and ideas in their Best Inventions issue.
Dubbed "the country in the smartphone," the Diia mobile app was launched by the Digital Transformation Ministry in 2020. As of early August, it included some 130 services and is used by more than 20 million Ukrainians, according to officials.
Ukrainians can apply, propose, and get married online by choosing a place and date. The couple can be in the same place or hundreds of kilometers apart.
Ukraine became the first country to have such a practice fully digitalized. Since the start of the full-scale war, nearly a million people have been defending the country. Through the app, soldiers can now get married while on the front line.
According to the Digital Transformation Ministry, as of Sept. 20, 251 couples had gotten married in Diia, and 3,200 had applied for marriage online. Almost 830,000 proposals were recorded, with 106,000 people saying "yes."
Apart from marrying online, the app allows users to access various official documents, including their passports, driver's licenses, or vehicle registrations. It also allows users to register a business or pay taxes with a few clicks.
Kateryna Denisova
(Updated: )
