The Government of India wants to end the dependence of Whatsapp and other messenger apps, and planning to launch their own chat app.
This will be exclusive for the officials of the Government, and will be only used within Govt. departments.
This whole idea of a new messenger app, exclusive for Govt. stems from the Huawei fiasco.
What does the Government plan for this app? How will it work?
Read on to know the details!
Indian Government’s New Communication App: A WhatsApp Killer!
We all have heard about the ongoing battle between Huawei and US companies, where Huawei will no longer be enjoying the benefits of any Google platform, such as the Google Play store. Facebook and Whatsapp have also chosen their sides against Huawei.
The intention behind developing this app is privacy issues, and the fear about technical dependence on foreign entities.
A government official expressed his worry about the Government following the same path for India, “It was unthinkable, but now it has definitely rung alarm bells with us. Tomorrow, if the US finds us unreliable for some reason, all they need to do is ask their companies to slow down networks in India and everything here will come to a standstill.”
Our Opinion
The Government of India has launched many apps until today, and the graph of these apps success is quite unsteady. While some apps such as , GST Rate Finder have worked out fine, but there has been an attempt to develop a similar chatting app in India previously.
The app was Kimbho, which was developed by India’s very own FMCG company, Patanjali by Ramdev Baba, and it was officially pitted against Whatsapp. But the reality was that the app didn’t live to see the light of the day, probably owing to the fact that it lacked good performance. The app was taken down from both the Google Play Store and Apple Store. The
However, things are different in this case, as the new app will not be made public, and is limited only for the officials and agencies of the government, and considering the resistance that Whatsapp is putting up against the former, the Government’s decision to launch a new app that will keep data private seems pretty appropriate.
Do you think this decision of developing a new app for communication between Government officials and agencies is necessary? Do let us know in the comments section right below!