Indian Army Launches Secure WhatsApp-like Chat App called ASIGMA
The Indian Army has announced the launch of an internal messaging app called ASIGMA (Army Secure Indi Geneous Messaging Application), The app is completely developed by a team of officers of the Corps of Signals of the Army. The app promises to offer a WhatsApp-like chat facility.
In a PIB (Press Information Bureau) post, it has been mentioned that the application is being deployed on the Army’s internal network as a replacement of the Army Wide Area Network (AWAN) messaging application. The AWAN has been in service for the past 15 years to meet Army requirements.
However, the ASIGMA app will not make its way to mainstream app stores. It means that normal people cannot use the application. The ASIGMA app has been fielded on Army-owned hardware and lends itself to lifetime support with future upgrades. Reportedly, it has been developed in line with the Government’s Make in India initiative.
What other features does the ASIGMA app offer?
The ASIGMA app hopes to offer a more secure messaging network for internal usage than WhatsApp. The officers do not want to rely on external servers such as WhatsApp because of the privacy concern. Concerns regarding the data privacy of WhatsApp is not new. WhatsApp has run into controversies about user data shared with its parent company, Facebook. The ASIGMA app also hopes to meet all “new-generation user requirements” such as group chats, voice notes, video and image sharing like WhatsApp.
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Importance of the ASIGMA app
Reportedly, the ASIGMA app also has a variety of contemporary features including multi-level security, message prioritisation and tracking, dynamic global address book, and many other features to meet Indian Army requirements. It will meet the real-time data transfer and messaging requirements of the Army, particularly in the backdrop of the current geopolitical security environment. PIB India wrote on Twitter that the application is a new generation, state of the art, web based application.