Government Reverses Directive on Cybersecurity App After Public and Industry Concern

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On 28 November 2025, the Indian government announced the mandatory pre-installation of the cybersecurity app Sanchar Saathi. However, just five days after this announcement, the Department of Telecommunications reversed the directive in a press release on Wednesday.

The officials stated that the platform is already being accepted at a large scale, hence there is little need to make it mandatory on the new smartphones. 

Original Directive and Compliance Timeline

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) previously issued a mandate that smartphone manufacturers must pre-install the Sanchar Saathi app on all new mobile handsets. This applied to devices manufactured or imported for sale within India. The government intended to help users verify genuine devices through this directive. Additionally, it aimed to prevent the misuse of telecom services nationwide.

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The directive stated that the app must be readily visible and accessible to users, while the manufacturers were explicitly told not to disable or restrict the app's functions. Companies had a compliance window of 90 days for implementing this change. As far as the existing devices are concerned, the manufacturers were required to push the app via software updates. The companies were also given 120 days to file a complete compliance report.

Privacy Concerns and Official Clarification

The DoT directive quickly triggered a sharp political and public backlash. Critics alleged an unprecedented intrusion into citizens' digital privacy. They compared the mandatory pre-installation to the Pegasus spyware scandal, which involved the misuse of surveillance software by several governments to spy on journalists.

Opposition leaders termed the app a "snooping tool" for surveillance. According to the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), the app made every smartphone a vessel for state-mandated software.

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Amid this public uproar, Union Minister for Communications, Jyotiraditya Scindia, clarified that the app is "completely optional" and can be deleted by the user anytime. The Minister asserted that the platform does not enable snooping or call monitoring.

In brief, the mandate received by smartphone makers to pre-install the Sanchar Saathi app has been recently revoked by the government, stating that people across India have already accepted the app.