India's telecoms ministry has directed smartphone manufacturers to pre-install a state-owned cyber-security application on all new devices sold in the country.
According to a recent report by Reuters, the order, dated November 28, 2025 was not made public and was circulated privately to companies including Apple, Samsung, Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi. These brands now have 90 days to ensure the app called "Sanchar Saathi" which cannot be removed or disabled by users – ships with every new handset. For devices already in the retail pipeline, manufacturers are expected to add the app through software updates.
India, one of the world's largest mobile markets with more than 1.2 billion telecom subscribers, has faced rising concerns over hacking, stolen phones and scams enabled by spoofed device identifiers. The government argues that the Sanchar Saathi app has become essential infrastructure, saying it can help block fraudulent connections and track stolen devices using IMEI numbers – the unique codes assigned to every handset, as per the Reuters report.
Indian officials claim that the app, launched in January, has already played a role in recovering more than 700,000 lost phones and shutting down 30 million fraudulent mobile connections. However, the mandate has raised alarms among technology and privacy experts, as well as companies operating in India. Lawyers specialising in digital rights say the directive effectively eliminates user consent, while privacy advocates have compared the move to Russia's recent requirement that a state-backed messaging app be pre-installed on smartphones.
The order is also likely to reignite tensions with Apple, which has historically resisted requests to preload government or third-party software. Apple's internal policies prohibit such installations before sale, and analysts say the company may seek a compromise by offering prompts that encourage users to download the app voluntarily. Apple accounts for an estimated 4.5 percent of India's 735 million smartphones, with most of the market running on Android, states the Reuters report.
