Government officials in India are said to be testing a new indigenous alternative to WhatsApp known as “Sandes”. This instant messaging app will reportedly have most of the core features of WhatsApp, including the ability to use voice and send media. News agencies report that Sandes is being tested by ministry officials, although it hasn’t been officially released yet.
Interestingly, the gims.gov.in page now redirects to a page which says Sandes (Hindi word for message), calling it the “Government Instant Messaging System”. This indicates that the app may be limited to government officials, though there’s no confirmation of this at the moment.
The National Informatics Centre which comes under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is reportedly handling the backend and development of this new application. Reports also suggest that Sandes will be a cross-platform application, meaning it will support both Android and iOS mobile platforms.
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Though the aforementioned website has a sign-in section via LDAP accompanied by sign-in with Sandes OTP, and Sandes Web options, choosing either of them simply returns a message saying “This authentication method is applicable for authorized government officials.”
This development comes in the wake of WhatsApp’s controversial data-sharing policy with parent company Facebook, which the latter had to put on hold due to significant opposition from the government as well as citizens. WhatsApp later said that the introduction of this new privacy policy has been delayed to 15 May while it was originally slated to come into effect on February 8.
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At the time, WhatsApp said that it cannot see personal conversations, nor can Facebook since WhatsApp chats are backed by end-to-end encryption. The instant messaging giant also took giant newspaper ads across the country to clarify its stance on the matter.
The Centre had asked WhatsApp to withdraw its proposed changes while expressing “grave concern” over the implications of such a move on the privacy of Indians.
The MeitY sent a letter to the Global Chief Executive Officer of WhatsApp, Will Cathcart, seeking details on the categories of data collected from Indian users as well as clarifications on the permission and consent required with new versions of the app. The MeitY has also been critical of WhatsApp’s differing privacy policies for India and the European Union.
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