Indian Army Launches SAI Messaging App With End-To-End Encryption

The Indian Army personnel were banner from using WhatsApp and a few other apps citing privacy and security reasons. Now, as a part of the "Atmanirbhar Bharat", the Indian Army has developed and launched a new secure messaging platform. This platform called Secure Application for the Internet (SAI) supports end-to-end voice, text and video calling services for the Android platform over the internet.

This platform is quite similar to the other commercial messaging applications such as WhatsApp, Telegram,. GIMS and SAMVAD and is end-to-end encrypted as well. As per the Ministry of Defense, SAI bundles security features with local servers and coding that can be tweaked based on the requirements.

SAI App Details

As per the statement, the SAI app has been vetted by the Army Cyber Group and CERT-in empaneled auditor. Currently, it is in the process of filing Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) hosting the infrastructure on NIC and working on iOS.

It has been announced that SAI will be deployed across the Indian Army to enable messaging within the service. The Defence Minister complimented Col Sai Shankar for developing this app after reviewing its functionalities.

Ban On Several Apps

Previously, the Indian Army personnel was banned from using WhatsApp and other third-party messaging platforms. Prior to that, the Army personnel were allowed to use Facebook but were restricted to post pictures in uniforms or disclosing their location.

Back in July this year, the Indian Army wanted its personnel to delete 89 apps from their phones including Tiktok, Facebook, Truecaller, Instagram, PUBG Mobile, Tinder, etc.

The reason for asking them to delete these apps is to curb the leakage of information. The army is suggested to be worried about cyber snooping and real-world snooping. Though this move followed the ban on a slew of Chinese apps, it has apps from various countries and not only China.