It raised concerns among privacy advocates and civil society groups.

Govt Withdraws Mandatory Sanchar Saathi Installation Order: DoT Says App Now Voluntary

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has withdrawn its directive that mandated pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi app on all new smartphones. The original directive that was issued on November 28, 2025, required every phone sold in India to come with the state-backed cybersecurity app pre-installed and also asked manufacturers to push it to existing devices via update.

On December 3, in a new press release, the government said that the decision to revoke the mandate was taken because the app has already witnessed “increasing acceptance” among citizens: over 1.4 crore users have downloaded it, and there was a ten-fold jump i

See Full Page