Indian Army launches secure messaging app ‘SAI’ for its soldiers

The Indian Army has launched a new messaging application called SAI that will provide secure voice, text and video calling services to its soldiers.

File image of Indian Army chief Gen MM Naravane

New Delhi: The Indian Army has 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 utilises end-to-end encryption messaging protocol," the Indian Army said in a statement on Thursday.

The Army developed and named this messaging app as SAI, which stands for Secure Application for Internet.
"SAI will be utilised pan Army to facilitate secure messaging within the service...The application supports end-to-end secure voice, text and video calling services for Android platform over internet," the statement noted.

Indian Army's newly developed messaging application is also in line with PM Narendra Modi's call for `Atmanirbhar Bharat`. 

The application supports an end-to-end secure voice, text and video calling services for Android platform over internet, the Ministry of Defence said.

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

The application has been vetted by CERT-in empanelled 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 after reviewing the functionalities of the app complimented Col Sai Shankar for his skill and ingenuity for developing the application," it added.