NEW DELHI (Kashmir English): India’s telecoms ministry has privately directed smartphone makers in the country to preload all new devices with a state-owned cyber security app that cannot be deleted. According to a government order.
The move is likely to cause Apple and privacy advocates annoyed. Under the new directions, Apple, Samsung, Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi are among the companies bound to follow the new order.
India has more than 1.2bn subscribers
India is one of the world’s largest telephone markets, with more than 1.2 billion subscribers. The government figures show the app, launched in January, has helped recover over 700,000 lost phones, 50,000 in the month of October alone.
Apple, which had previously locked horns with the telecom regulator over development of a government anti-spam mobile app, is among the companies bound by the new order.
The November 28 order, seen by media, gives major smartphone companies 90 days to ensure that the government’s Sanchar Saathi app is pre-installed on new mobile phones, with a provision that users cannot disable it.
For smartphones already in the supply chain, makers should push the app to devices via software updates, the ministry said in its order, which was not made public and was sent privately to select companies.
The government is of the view that the app was essential to combat “serious endangerment” of telecom cyber security from duplicate or spoofed IMEI numbers, which enable scams and network misuse.
Apple’s iOS powered approximately 4.5 percent of 735 million smartphones in the country by mid-2025, with the rest using Android, said “Counterpoint Research”.
According to a source with direct knowledge of the matter, Apple pre-installs its own proprietary apps on phones and its internal policies prohibit installation of any government or third-party app before sale of a smartphone.
“Apple has historically refused such requests from governments,” said Tarun Pathak, a research director at Counterpoint.
“It’s likely to seek a middle ground: instead of a mandatory pre-install, they might negotiate and ask for an option to nudge users towards installing the app.”
