What is Sandes app and how to use it. Is it Indian version of WhatsApp?

Let’s explore What is the Sandes app? How do I download and use it? Can it be called an Indian substitute for WhatsApp, like social messaging apps?

Nowadays, almost every person is connected to a social messaging app. Whether it is WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, or any other app, Every person is communicating with each other through his or her family or friends. This messaging app is proving to be in great demand. No matter where you are, you are always connected to your loved ones and share your feelings with each other, whether through text, photos, or videos. Moreover, these messaging apps are proving to be very helpful in office work as well. During the time of COVID-19, when almost everyone was stuck in their homes due to lockdown, this was a great tool for office work. The biggest benefit of their use is that the work that used to take days to do can be done in a very short time. But the government noticed a flaw in it: these are third-party apps, and they can compromise privacy in some way. Keeping this in mind, the Indian government, with the help of the National Informatics Center (NIC) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), created a government instant messaging system (GIMS) in the year 2019, which is called the SANDES app and is also called the Indian version of the WhatsApp messaging app.

The Government of India created the open-source instant messaging service Sandes App. It was specifically developed to provide a WhatsApp-like communication experience to government officials. This app can be used by government officials and public users alike. It requires a mobile number or government email ID (gov.in) for sign-up. You can’t use Gmail or any other non-government email for registration. If you don’t have a government.in email address, you can use your mobile number for registration on the Sandes app.

After signing in, users are able to send and receive messages as well as create new groups. The app also supports the transaction of media files.

It works on the web version (desktop), iOS, and Android devices. The platform is only housed on government infrastructure, and both are subject to Indian government laws and regulations.

• Sandes provides file sharing, Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP), instant messaging, and interaction with a range of digital services provided by the Indian government. It was exclusively available to government personnel in the early versions, but the general public can now view it. Currently, only verified users have access to the platform’s full functionalities.
• Like WhatsApp and other popular instant messaging apps, this app is end-to-end encrypted.
• The application can be used to send and receive messages or share media files with contacts.
• It also has the features of contact sharing and group chat.
• Apart from this, users can also broadcast messages.

You can download this app either from Google Play or App Store or from its official portal: https://www.sandes.gov.in/. It will support Android 5.0 and above. For iOS users, it also supports iOS 12.0 and above. The size of the app is 21.6 MB (Android) and 70.9 MB (iOS).

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After downloading this app or using it from its portal, you have to sign in through the government.in e-mail ID or mobile number. It uses a 6-digit OTP for verification. The detailed login procedure is as follows:

• Launch the app. The welcome text shows up.
• There are two ways for you to sign in to the Sandes app. One uses a mobile number, and the other an email address (gov.in).
• Type in your mobile number.
• Type in the OTP. This will be sent to your mobile phone.
• Type your full name.
• Choose a gender.
• Add a photo to your profile. Since this is optional, you can ignore it.
• Include your photo in the upload. Permit the location.
• Sync your contact list.

I am mentioning here the link to Sandes App version 2.0 (FAQ) for your convenience. It is 14 pages. pdf document. You can go through it, and it may provide you with the answers to the questions that are on your mind regarding using this app.

Limitations of the Sandes App:

To register, a working mobile number is needed. Only one-on-one communication is allowed for public users. A formal group can have no more than 200 members. A casual group can only have fifty people in it. Ten contacts can be added to the broadcast list at once. Only the following file types can be sent by users: images (jpeg, jpg, png), audio (mp3, m4a), video (mp4), and documents (doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx, pdf). Each file can only be 15 MB in size.

• Whatsapp
• Telegram
• Signal
• Troop Messenger
• Session etc.

Users can send and receive group and one-to-one end-to-end encrypted communications using Sandes. Enables end-to-end encrypted video and audio calls between users. Features for messaging include broadcast, backup, customize text, tag, forward, and forward to mail.

Whenever you try to login to this app, it sends you an OTP to your mobile number through SMS and Sandes.

To ensure secure communication, every message is encrypted end-to-end. Any personally identifiable information that users voluntarily provide on the Sandes is never sold or shared with a third party, either public or private, unless it is required by law enforcement or a court order.

The Sandes app is an instant messaging platform that can be used both by government officials and individuals.

You can install the Sandes app either from Google Play (for Android devices) or the App Store (for iOS devices). You can also use the web version of this app on your desktop.

In conclusion, we can say, my friends, that the Sandes app is on the way to becoming a potent and user-friendly instant messaging tool for both the general public and Indian government officials. It does this by upholding security and privacy standards in addition to satisfying the basic demand for smooth messaging and providing almost all the facilities of WhatsApp, like social messaging apps. The Sandes app offers a reliable platform for people and governments to exchange information with confidence because of its user-friendly UI and strong encryption features.

That’s all my friends for now. I hope you will like this article. You can contact me through the email addresses given below. Your feedback and comments are always valuable for me 🙂

Yours

Abhijit Ranjan