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Convenience or control? India pushes Apple and Google to add state-backed apps

Published

Jan 22, 2025

TopicApps
Credit: Apple India

TL;DR

  • India urges Apple and Alphabet to include a government-backed super app in their app stores by default.
  • The app is used for public-welfare services and alerts.
  • The phone makers reportedly resist the plan, potentially leading to legal battles.
Author

Paddle News Desk

Developing story, reported here by Bloomberg. We have also reached out to Indian app-makers for further context.

Forced downloads: India is pushing to gain more control over distribution on smartphones by requesting Apple and Alphabet to allow the government-backed super app GOV.in to be available by default in their app stores.

According to Bloomberg reporting, the Indian technology ministry has approached executives from multiple smartphone manufacturers to discuss making the state-backed app suite available in their marketplaces to expand the distribution of public welfare services. The move would likely require pre-installation of the app, and force permitting downloads from third-party sources without warnings.

Walled gardens: Both Apple and Google are known for their strict control of their "walled gardens", and thus resistant to the plan. Failure to comply would likely tee up a legal battle or harsher policy mandates from the Indian government. The country previously enacted measures like banning TikTok and challenging Meta over encrypted messages.

What we're tracking: Undeniably, India is one of the top emerging markets for all things tech, and smartphone usage is growing rapidly. So any challenge could easily upset the government's important growth goals on the consumer technology front.