Indian Army Launches Indigenously Developed WhatsApp-Like Messaging App To Facilitate Secure Communication Within Service

In the quest for ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, Indian Army has launched a a simple and secure messaging application named the “Secure Application for Internet (SAI)” on Thursday (29 October).

The application supports end to end secure voice, text and video calling services for Android platform over internet, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

The ministry said that the model of the SAI was "similar to commercially available messaging applications like Whatsapp, Telegram, SAMVAD and GIMS" and utilises end to end encryption messaging protocol.

SAI will be utilised pan Army to facilitate secure messaging within the service, it said.

SAI scores over on security features with local in-house servers and coding which can be tweaked as per requirements, the statement said.

The application has been vetted by CERT-in empaneled auditor and Army Cyber Group.

Also, the process for filing Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) hosting the infrastructure on NIC and working on iOS platform is currently in progress.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh reviewed the functionalities of the app and complimented Colonel Sai Shankar for his skill and ingenuity for developing the application, the statement said.