Indian Army Launches WhatsApp-Like Indigenous Messaging App SAI

The Indian Army on Thursday launched a messaging app called ‘SAI’ that will provide secure voice, text, and video calling services to its soldiers.

“The model (of SAI) is similar to commercially available messaging applications like WhatsApp, Telegram, SAMVAD, and GIMS and utilizes end-to-end encryption messaging protocol,” the Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

The Army developed and named this messaging app as SAI, which stands for Secure Application for the Internet.

SAI scores over on security features with local in-house servers and coding which can be tweaked as per requirements, the ministry said.

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 utilized pan Army to facilitate secure messaging within the service…The application supports end-to-end secure voice, text, and video calling services for Android platforms over the internet,” the statement noted.