'A feeling of safety': Govt officials get WhatsApp-like messaging app

Officials in some ministries have begun to use Sandes to communicate with each other.

To get government employees to avoid using social media or platforms that might not be considered secure for exchanging official information, India has begun to experiment with a locally developed version of WhatsApp. While its use is restricted to government officials for now, experts hope to deploy this new app on a larger scale in the future.

Called Sandes (www.gims.gov.in), the messaging app has the look and feel of WhatsApp and is not to be confused with apps available on Google Play with similar sounding names such as Sandesh. It has been designed by the government’s technology department, the National Informatics