All phones sold in India will be pre-installed with a state-owned 'security' app that needs access to all phone permissions — and you can't delete or uninstall it

What you need to know

• The Indian government's Department of Telecommunications is ordering phone manufacturers to pre-install the Sanchar Saathi app.
• Android device manufacturers need to pre-install the app on all future phones, and roll out an OTA update that installs it on existing phones.
• The government set a 90-day deadline towards this order, and Apple is also mandated to include the app on iPhones.

Android phones have bloatware issues as it is, without getting governments installed, and the situation is particularly annoying in India, where apps play fast and loose with device permissions. To add to it, the Indian government just mandated all phone manufacturers to pre-install its Sanchar Saathi app on all future phones. Not only that, the government is ordering manufacturers to roll out an OTA to install the app on existing phones.

The Sanchar Saathi app is available on the Play Store — where it has over 10 million downloads as of writing — and the App Store, but with the government mandate, it will make its way to all phones in the country. It isn't just Android phones being affected either, as the order also includes iPhones.

The Play Store listing says the app doesn't collect or share any data, but that is not the case. I installed it on my Find X9 Pro, and it needs phone state permission — ostensibly to track lost devices — as well as SMS access, and if you don't provide these details, it automatically exits. That's not all either; once you register, Sanchar Saathi needs access to your camera, call logs and even device storage.

The Indian government says the app is a cybersecurity solution aimed at "empowering" mobile users in the country, but having it pre-installed on all phones is a heavy-handed move, and given the sheer amount of data is has access to, it's hard to see this move as a good thing. What's even more egregious is that the Sanchar Saathi app cannot be disabled or uninstalled once it's pre-loaded on a device.

Phone manufacturers have 90 days to comply with the mandate, but at this point, it's unclear whether they will be able to do so. I reached out to Google, and the brand said that it is evaluating the order, but that there isn't anything to share at the moment. Apple, similarly, didn't have anything to share as of now.

Vivo, Xiaomi, and OnePlus told me there wasn't a statement yet, and OPPO indicated that it is evaluating the situation internally, with a statement imminent. In typical Samsung fashion, the brand didn't get back to my query, but I'll update this post once I have additional information.