Indian Army develops its own WhatsApp-like messaging application 'SAI'

The Indian Army has developed and launced an in-house messaging application called the 'Secure Application for Internet (SAI)'. This messaging application supports an end-to-end secure voice, text and video calling services for Android platform over Internet, the Ministry of Defence said on Thursday.

The WhatsApp-like application has been specially designed by the Army for its personnel to prevent leaking of any classified information.

This initiative by the Indian Army can also been seen as a part of the 'Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.'

'The model is similar to commercially available messaging applications like WhatsApp, Telegram, SAMVAD and GIMS and utilises end-to-end encryption messaging protocol. SAI scores over on security features with local in-house servers and coding, which can be tweaked as per requirements,' the ministry said in a release.

SAI was first developed by Colonel Sai Shankar, the commanding officer of a signals unit in Rajasthan, and then upgraded to military-grade standards. Defence minister Rajnath Singh has also complimented Col Shankar for his 'skill and ingenuity' in developing the application.

According to the statement, the application has been vetted by CERT-in empaneled auditor and Army Cyber Group, and the process for filing Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) hosting the infrastructure on NIC and working on iOS platform is currently in progress.

'SAI will be utilised pan Army to facilitate secure messaging within the service. The Defence Minister Rajnath Singh after reviewing the functionalities of the app complimented Col Sai Shankar for his skill and ingenuity for developing the application,' it added.

Only last year the Indian Army had asked its personnel to avoid the use of WhatsApp for official work. It has also asked officers holding sensitive appointments to delete their Facebook accounts.

This was after an incident that happened in 2018, where a Group Captain posted at the IAF headquarters in New Delhi had fallen prey to a Pakistani women spy who had virtually 'honey-trapped' him.

There have been several cases of Pakistani women spies trying to virtually honey trap Indian military personnel on Social media to divulge classified information. Therefore this application can prevent such incidents and avoid leaking of any classified information.