India's alternative to WhatsApp being tested by govt officials

An Indian alternative of the cross-platform messaging service Whatsapp named 'Sandes' is currently being tested by government officials in India. The app is ready and is being tested by ministry officials.

According to Mashable, the use of 'Sandes' app is currently restricted to government officials only.

No information has been provided as to when the official and broader rollout of the app will take place in India. If people go to the gims.gov.in page, they will notice it says 'Sandes'.

'Sandes' is available for both iOS and Android platforms. Talking about the features that this app can support, users can use features like voice and data. Also, its backend is handled by the NIC, the National Informatics Centre under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

As per Mashable, this comes at a time when WhatsApp is facing scrutiny from government and privacy activists over its new controversial privacy policy.

Given the concerns over its new policy, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) strongly objected to the new WhatsApp privacy update and demanded that the government should immediately restrict WhatsApp from implementing the new policy or put a ban on WhatsApp and Facebook.

( With inputs from ANI )