The Indian government has quietly ordered all major smartphone manufacturers — including Apple, Samsung, Vivo, Xiaomi, Oppo and others — to ship new devices with the Sanchar Saathi app pre-installed.

The Sanchar Saathi app will require permission to read one’s phone’s “state and identity”, Deepstrat Co-Founder Anand Venkatanarayanan mentioned in an X (formerly Twitter) post. This permission ...

How many mobile connections are currently active in your name and linked to your identity documents, and could any of them be in the hands of fraudsters? If you are unsure, the Sanchar Saathi app from ...

The Sanchar Saathi app was launched in January this year and can be downloaded from both Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store. (Image: FE.com) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has defended the ...

Union Minister for Communications, Jyotiraditya Scindia, has clarified that users can delete the Sanchar Saathi app from their smartphones. He stated, "If you don't want Sanchar Saathi, you can delete ...

The central government on Wednesday retracted its decision to mandate pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi app on all smartphones. The Ministry of Communications' order had sparked widespread ...

The government has introduced the Sanchar Saathi portal to address the issue of mobile phone theft and protect personal data. Losing a smartphone or having it stolen is a common occurrence, and the ...

Sanchar Saathi app icon and Indian flag appear on smartphone in this illustration taken December 2, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration The government's cyber security and safety app Sanchar Saathi ...