According to the report, India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has privately asked smartphone makers to pre-load all new devices in India with its cybersecurity app Sanchar Saathi. reuters,
The publication claims that the November 28, 2025 order by DoT gives smartphone brands 90 days to ensure that all new mobile phones are pre-loaded with the Sanchar Saathi (pronounced: sun-char sa-thi) app, with the provision that users cannot disable it.
The order, meant to tackle the rise in cyber crimes and hacking, also asks phone makers to push the Sanchar Saathi (translation: communication partner) app through software updates for devices already sold in India.
Smartphone companies affected by the directive include Apple, Samsung, Oppo, vivo and Xiaomi.
DoT has described Sanchar Saathi as “a citizen centric initiative to empower mobile subscribers, strengthen their security and increase awareness about citizen centric initiatives of the government”. It is available on the web at www.sancharsathi.gov.in and iPhone users can also download it from the App Store and Android users from the Play Store, where it has more than 10 million downloads.
Sanchar Saathi has over 11 million registrations
Data shared by the ministry on the Sanchar Sathi website shows that the app has over 11 million registrations, with Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra being the only Indian states with over 1 million registrations at the time of writing.
Some of the notable services of Sanchar Saathi include allowing users to block their lost/stolen mobile phones, verify the genuineness of their mobile handset and check whether they have mobile connections in their name or not.
Data shared by DoT shows that more than 4.2 million lost/stolen mobile phones have been blocked, while more than 2.6 million mobile phones have been traced with the help of Sanchar Saathi.
reuters Reports said the Indian government said the Sanchar Saathi app was necessary to tackle a “serious threat” to telecom cyber security enabling duplicate or fake IMEI numbers, scams and network abuse.
It remains to be seen whether smartphone companies will follow the DoT order and pre-install Sanchar Saathi on all their new devices or find a middle path.
