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—sanchar-saathi-app-2026 [2026/08/11 02:31] (current) – created - external edit 127.0.0.1
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 +{{htmlmetatags>metatag-title=(Sanchar Saathi App 2026: Is It Mandatory?)
 +metatag-keywords=(Sanchar Saathi app, is Sanchar Saathi app mandatory, how to remove Sanchar Saathi app, Sanchar Saathi app download, DoT pre-installation order, Sanchar Saathi privacy, Sanchar Saathi app uninstall, Telecom Cyber Security Rules 2024, Sanchar Saathi app features, IMEI check app, report fraud from call log)
 +metatag-description=(What the Sanchar Saathi app does, why the DoT order to pre-install it on every phone was withdrawn in December 2025, and whether to install or delete it.)
 +metatag-og:description=(What the Sanchar Saathi app does, why the DoT order to pre-install it on every phone was withdrawn in December 2025, and whether to install or delete it.)
 +metatag-og:image=(https://righttoinformation.wiki/_media/social/auto/sanchar-saathi-app-2026-human-photo.webp)}}
 +
 +====== Sanchar Saathi App 2026: What It Does and Whether You Must Install It ======
 +
 +{{ :social:auto:sanchar-saathi-app-2026-human-photo.webp?direct&1200 |An Indian woman helps her older father use a smartphone at home while reviewing mobile-safety services.}}
 +
 +<WRAP info>
 +**Quick Reply:** The Sanchar Saathi app is the Department of Telecommunications' citizen app for checking which SIMs are registered in your name, blocking a lost or stolen handset, checking whether a handset's IMEI is genuine, and reporting fraud calls and messages. **It is not mandatory.** DoT ordered manufacturers to pre-install it on 28 November 2025 and the Government withdrew that requirement on 3 December 2025. You can install it, ignore it, or delete it. This page is citizen guidance only; it is not an official government, regulator, bank, telecom, or insurance page.
 +</WRAP>
 +
 +For about seventy-two hours in December 2025, the Sanchar Saathi app was the most argued-about piece of software in India. A departmental direction said every new phone sold in the country would carry it. Within two days the Government said it would not.
 +
 +If you came here because you heard the app is compulsory, because you found it already on a new handset, or because you want to know what it actually does before you install it, this page sets out what the official record says, with dates and release references you can check yourself.
 +
 +For the individual services, see [[:check-sim-misuse-tafcop-2026|check SIM misuse via TAFCOP]] and [[:report-fraud-call-sms-chakshu-2026|report a fraud call or SMS on Chakshu]].
 +
 +===== What the Sanchar Saathi app actually does =====
 +
 +Sanchar Saathi is both a portal at [[https://sancharsaathi.gov.in|sancharsaathi.gov.in]] and a mobile app. Both are run by the [[https://dot.gov.in|Department of Telecommunications]], Ministry of Communications, and are developed and hosted by the Centre for Development of Telematics.
 +
 +Describing the initiative in its release of 1 December 2025, the Ministry said DoT "has developed Sanchar Saathi portal and App which enables citizens to check genuineness of a mobile handset through the IMEI number along with other facilities like reporting suspected fraud communications, lost/ stolen mobile handsets, check mobile connections in their name, trusted contact details of banks/ financial institutions."
 +
 +In practice that is five things:
 +
 +  * **Mobile connections in your name.** The TAFCOP function: see every SIM registered against your identity and flag the ones you did not take. Covered in detail in [[:check-sim-misuse-tafcop-2026|check SIM misuse via TAFCOP]]. If a genuine number is flagged and the operator sends a KYC warning, use the [[:sim-reverification-sms-keep-number-active-2026|safe SIM re-verification route]]; the Sanchar Saathi app does not replace the operator's KYC process.
 +  * **Block a lost or stolen handset.** The CEIR function: block the device by IMEI so it cannot be used on any Indian network, and trace it if it resurfaces. See [[:block-lost-stolen-sim-card-india|block a lost or stolen SIM card and handset]].
 +  * **Check whether a handset is genuine.** The KYM function: enter an IMEI and see whether the number is valid, duplicated or already blocked. Useful before paying for a second-hand phone. See [[:used-phone-imei-database-check-telecom-cyber-security-rules-2025|used phone IMEI database check]].
 +  * **Report a fraud call, SMS or WhatsApp.** The Chakshu function, which the app can do directly from your call log rather than making you retype a number.
 +  * **Trusted contact details for banks and financial institutions**, so you are not searching for a helpline number in a panic and landing on a fake one.
 +
 +The portal also publishes plain-language awareness leaflets on specific scam patterns, including fake job calls, fake traffic challans, fraudulent loan apps, investment scams, credit card scams, undeliverable parcel scams and SMS bombarding.
 +
 +===== The pre-installation order, and its withdrawal =====
 +
 +Here is the sequence, with the official record for each step.
 +
 +^ Date ^ What happened ^ Source ^
 +| 21 November 2024 | The Telecommunications Telecom Cyber Security Rules 2024 are notified as G.S.R. 720 E under section 22 of the Telecommunications Act 2023. These are the rules DoT later relies on. | Gazette of India |
 +| 28 November 2025 | DoT issues Directions to manufacturers and importers of mobile handsets intended for use in India, requiring pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi app. | Directions dated 28.11.2025 |
 +| 1 December 2025 | The Ministry of Communications announces the directions publicly. | PIB release 2197140 |
 +| 2 December 2025 | The Union Minister for Communications issues a clarification: the app is voluntary, activates only after voluntary registration, and can be deleted at any time. | PIB release 2197518 |
 +| 3 December 2025 | The Government announces it has decided not to make pre-installation mandatory. | PIB release 2198110 |
 +
 +**What the order actually required.** According to the release of 1 December 2025, manufacturers and importers were to ensure the app was pre-installed on all handsets manufactured or imported for use in India; that it was "readily visible and accessible to the end users at the time of first use or device setup and that its functionalities are not disabled or restricted"; and that for devices already sitting in sales channels they "shall make an endeavour to push the App through software updates." Implementation was to be completed in 90 days, with a compliance report in 120 days.
 +
 +**Why it was withdrawn.** The release of 3 December 2025 stated that the mandate had been intended to accelerate uptake and reach less aware citizens, that 1.4 crore users had by then downloaded the app and were contributing information on 2000 fraud incidents per day, and that in a single day 6 lakh citizens had registered to download it, described as a tenfold increase. It concluded: "Given Sanchar Saathi's increasing acceptance, Government has decided not to make the pre- installation mandatory for mobile manufacturers."
 +
 +Note what that does and does not say. The Government framed the withdrawal as a response to rising voluntary adoption. It did not state that the direction was legally infirm, and it did not withdraw the Telecom Cyber Security Rules under which the direction was issued.
 +
 +===== Is the app mandatory now? =====
 +
 +No. Pre-installation is not mandatory for manufacturers, and installation has never been mandatory for you as a citizen. There is no penalty for not having it and no service you lose by not installing it.
 +
 +Two practical qualifications:
 +
 +  * **A handset you buy may still ship with it.** The withdrawal removed the obligation on manufacturers; it did not require anyone to remove an app already included. A device may carry it because the maker chose to include it.
 +  * **Every function of the app also exists on the website.** Nothing in the app is available only in the app. If you would rather not install anything, use [[https://sancharsaathi.gov.in|sancharsaathi.gov.in]] in a browser and you get the same modules.
 +
 +===== The privacy question, answered honestly =====
 +
 +This is the part where a lot of coverage stopped being careful, so here is the distinction between what is on the record and what is not.
 +
 +**What the Government has stated.** In the clarification of 2 December 2025, the Union Minister for Communications said the app is "completely democratic and fully voluntary", that users can activate it at their convenience and "may deactivate or delete it from their devices at any time", and characterised it as "not surveillance" but a citizen safety tool. The release of 3 December 2025 stated there is "no other function other than protecting the users in the app and they can remove the app whenever they want."
 +
 +**What we are not asserting.** We have not independently verified the app's data collection behaviour, and we are not going to summarise it from press commentary. If the specific permissions and data categories matter to you - and for a government-published app on your primary handset, they reasonably might - read the **Data safety** section on the app's own store listing and the privacy policy linked from it, before you install:
 +
 +  * Android: [[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dot.app.sancharsaathi|Google Play listing]]
 +  * iOS: [[https://apps.apple.com/in/app/sanchar-saathi/id6739700695|Apple App Store listing]]
 +
 +Those two pages are the primary source for what any app declares about its own data handling, and they are updated when the app is. That is a better basis for your decision than anyone's characterisation, including ours.
 +
 +**Your rights either way.** Whatever an app collects, your rights over personal data in India come from the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023. See [[:exercise-data-protection-rights-dpdp-2026|how to exercise your data protection rights under DPDP]].
 +
 +===== What the initiative claims to have achieved =====
 +
 +These are the Government's own aggregate figures for the Sanchar Saathi initiative, as cited by the Union Minister for Communications on 2 December 2025. We reproduce them as claims attributed to their source, not as independently verified outcomes.
 +
 +^ Figure ^ Claimed ^
 +| Portal visits | 21.5 crore and above |
 +| App downloads | 1.4 crore and above |
 +| Connections disconnected by citizens selecting "Not My Number" | 1.43 crore and above |
 +| Lost or stolen phones traced | 26 lakh, of which 7.23 lakh were returned |
 +| Fraudulent connections disconnected on citizen reports | 40.96 lakh |
 +| Fraud-linked IMEIs blocked | 6.2 lakh |
 +| Potential financial loss prevented through the Financial Fraud Risk Indicator | ₹475 crore |
 +
 +If you want these figures broken down, or the methodology behind them, that is a reasonable RTI application to the Department of Telecommunications.
 +
 +===== Should you install it? =====
 +
 +A straight answer, since the question is what brought most readers here.
 +
 +**Reasons it is worth having.** Reporting a fraud call directly from your call log is meaningfully faster than opening a browser and retyping a number, and speed is the whole game with fraud reporting. The IMEI check is genuinely useful at the moment you are standing in front of someone selling a used phone. And blocking a stolen handset is something you want to do in minutes, not after finding a laptop.
 +
 +**Reasons you might not bother.** Every function is on the website. If you check your SIM list once a year and have never needed to block a handset, a browser bookmark does the same work with nothing installed.
 +
 +**The honest middle.** Install it if you will use the call-log reporting or expect to buy a second-hand phone; otherwise bookmark the portal. Neither choice leaves you worse protected, because the underlying services are identical.
 +
 +===== How to remove the app =====
 +
 +If it came pre-installed on your handset, or you installed it and changed your mind, remove it the same way as any other app: press and hold the icon and choose uninstall, or go to Settings, then Apps, select Sanchar Saathi and uninstall.
 +
 +If your device only offers "Disable" rather than "Uninstall", that indicates the app was placed in the system partition by the manufacturer. Disabling stops it running. Whether a full uninstall is available depends on your manufacturer, not on DoT. The Government's position, stated on 3 December 2025, is that users "can remove the app whenever they want."
 +
 +===== Common mistakes =====
 +
 +  * **Believing you are legally required to install it.** You are not, and you never were. The obligation was on manufacturers, and it was withdrawn.
 +  * **Installing a lookalike.** Search results and forwarded links carry fake versions of popular government apps. Install only from the Google Play or Apple App Store listings linked above, and check the developer.
 +  * **Thinking the app replaces 1930.** It does not. If money has already gone, call [[:1930-helpline-cyber-fraud-script|1930]] and file at [[https://cybercrime.gov.in|cybercrime.gov.in]].
 +  * **Assuming pre-installed means activated.** The Minister's clarification of 2 December 2025 states the app activates only after voluntary registration.
 +  * **Using it to check a number someone sent you.** The IMEI check is for handsets. To check whether a caller is genuine, use [[:report-fraud-call-sms-chakshu-2026|Chakshu]].
 +
 +===== Frequently asked questions =====
 +
 +==== Is the Sanchar Saathi app mandatory in India? ====
 +
 +No. DoT issued directions on 28 November 2025 requiring manufacturers to pre-install it, and the Government announced on 3 December 2025 that pre-installation would not be mandatory. Installation was never compulsory for citizens.
 +
 +==== Can I delete the Sanchar Saathi app? ====
 +
 +Yes. The Government stated on 3 December 2025 that users can remove the app whenever they want. If your handset offers only "Disable", the manufacturer placed it in the system partition.
 +
 +==== Is the app free? ====
 +
 +Yes. It is a free citizen service of the Department of Telecommunications.
 +
 +==== What is the difference between the app and the portal? ====
 +
 +They offer the same modules. The app adds convenience, most usefully the ability to report a suspected fraud communication directly from your call log.
 +
 +==== Does the app track my location or read my messages? ====
 +
 +We have not independently verified the app's data behaviour and will not repeat second-hand claims. Read the Data safety section on the Google Play or Apple App Store listing and the linked privacy policy before installing. The Union Minister for Communications stated on 2 December 2025 that the app is voluntary and is not surveillance.
 +
 +==== Which law was the pre-installation order issued under? ====
 +
 +The Telecommunications Telecom Cyber Security Rules 2024, notified as G.S.R. 720 E on 21 November 2024 under section 22 of the Telecommunications Act 2023. Those rules deal with, among other things, obligations on manufacturers and importers of equipment carrying IMEI numbers.
 +
 +==== Was the order struck down by a court? ====
 +
 +No. On the official record it was withdrawn by the Government, which cited rising voluntary adoption. No judicial invalidation was announced.
 +
 +==== Do I need the app to check how many SIMs are in my name? ====
 +
 +No. Use [[https://tafcop.sancharsaathi.gov.in|tafcop.sancharsaathi.gov.in]] in any browser. See [[:check-sim-misuse-tafcop-2026|check SIM misuse via TAFCOP]].
 +
 +==== My new phone already had it installed. Is that legal? ====
 +
 +Yes. A manufacturer may include the app if it chooses. The withdrawal removed the obligation to pre-install; it did not prohibit pre-installing.
 +
 +==== Can I use it if I am outside India? ====
 +
 +The services are built around Indian telecom connections and Indian handset records. The portal is reachable from abroad, but functions requiring an OTP to an Indian mobile number need that number to be reachable.
 +
 +==== Does the app help if I have already lost money? ====
 +
 +Not directly. Call 1930 and file at cybercrime.gov.in. See the [[:1930-helpline-cyber-fraud-script|1930 helpline script]].
 +
 +==== What is the Financial Fraud Risk Indicator mentioned in the figures? ====
 +
 +It is a DoT risk-flagging output shared with banks and payment operators so they can apply extra checks on numbers assessed as high risk. The ₹475 crore figure attributed to it comes from the Ministry's statement of 2 December 2025.
 +
 +===== About this guide (E-E-A-T) =====
 +
 +<WRAP box>
 +**Expertise.** This guide is written by the RTI Wiki editorial team from the primary record: Press Information Bureau releases issued by the Ministry of Communications, the Sanchar Saathi portal itself, and the Telecommunications Telecom Cyber Security Rules 2024 made under the Telecommunications Act 2023.
 +
 +**Experience.** The module list and the app store listings referenced here were checked on the live Sanchar Saathi portal in August 2026. The sequence of the pre-installation order and its withdrawal is reconstructed from three dated PIB releases rather than from news coverage.
 +
 +**Authoritativeness.** This is a citizen guidance page, not an official government page. The order and its terms are from PIB release 2197140 dated 1 December 2025; the ministerial clarification and the outcome figures from release 2197518 dated 2 December 2025; and the withdrawal from release 2198110 dated 3 December 2025. RTI Wiki is an independent platform and does not represent any government department.
 +
 +**Trustworthiness.** Where we could not verify a claim we have said so rather than filled the gap. Specifically, we do not describe the app's data collection behaviour, and we direct readers to the official store listings and privacy policy instead. Government outcome figures are presented as claims attributed to their source.
 +
 +**Last updated:** August 2026 | **Reviewed by:** RTI Wiki Editorial Team
 +</WRAP>
 +
 +===== Related guides =====
 +
 +  * [[:check-sim-misuse-tafcop-2026|Check SIM Misuse via TAFCOP on Sanchar Saathi]]
 +  * [[:report-fraud-call-sms-chakshu-2026|Report a Fraud Call, SMS or WhatsApp on Chakshu]]
 +  * [[:block-lost-stolen-sim-card-india|Block a Lost or Stolen SIM Card]]
 +  * [[:used-phone-imei-database-check-telecom-cyber-security-rules-2025|Used Phone IMEI Database Check]]
 +  * [[:unknown-mobile-numbers-in-my-name-sanchar-saathi-tafcop|Unknown Mobile Numbers in My Name]]
 +  * [[:exercise-data-protection-rights-dpdp-2026|Exercise Your Data Protection Rights Under DPDP]]
 +  * [[:1930-helpline-cyber-fraud-script|1930 Helpline Cyber Fraud Script]]
 +  * [[:file-cybercrime-complaint-2026|File a Cybercrime Complaint]]
 +  * [[:digital-arrest-scam-india|Digital Arrest Scam India]]
 +  * [[:whatsapp-otp-fraud-explained-india|WhatsApp OTP Fraud Explained]]
 +  * [[:trai-dnd-stop-spam-calls-sms-complaint-india|TRAI DND: Stop Spam Calls and SMS]]
 +  * [[:sim-swap-fraud-telecom-not-their-fault-india|SIM Swap Fraud Where Telecom Is Not at Fault]]
 +  * [[:which-regulator-to-complain-to-india-sebi-rbi-irdai-trai-dgca-hub|Which Regulator to Complain To]]
 +  * [[:write-effective-rti-application-2026|How to Write an Effective RTI Application]]
 +
 +Want to ask the department what it actually did with a report, or how a published figure was arrived at? [[https://righttoinformation.wiki/book|The RTI Playbook]] walks you through the full process step by step.
 +
 +{{tag>2026 citizen-guide legal-finance consumer-rights india telecom-fraud sanchar-saathi sanchar-saathi-app dot privacy dpdp cybercrime}}
 +
 +===== Related on RTI Wiki =====
 +  * [[:trai-ai-spam-detection-block-without-complaint-2026|TRAI AI spam detection and blocking 2026]]
 +  * [[:whatsapp-telegram-sim-binding-rule-india-2026|WhatsApp-Telegram SIM binding rule India 2026]]
 +  * [[:new-aadhaar-app-face-authentication-qr-2026|New Aadhaar app face authentication and QR 2026]]
 +  * [[:ai-deepfake-content-labelling-rules-india-2026|AI deepfake content labelling rules India 2026]]
 +  * [[:report-scam-call-number-2026|Report a scam call number 2026]]
  
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