Indian apps that can take over the pre-established Chinese apps
The turbulence to boycott Chinese apps and goods has reached its ultimate limit after the face-off with Chinese troops in Galwan Valley that left 20 Indian troops dead. Not only that, but a fake letter is also being circulated that NIC, under the Government of India, has directed the regional executive and representatives of Google India and Apple India to restrict the functioning of Chinese applications from their respective stores as per instructions by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
The letter mentioned 15 apps in particular, which include TikTok, Club Factory, Shein, Vivo Video among others.
We will come to this fake claim, but for now-
Several users are now on the lookout for Indian alternatives to these popular Chinese apps, however, it can’t be so easy to find a good alternative. So, we have listed some of the applications that might suit your purpose.
- Say Namaste
It is an online tool that can be accessed by visiting saynamaste.in/ on your web browser. The developers have launched an iOS app but there is no update on the Android version. The platforms claims that it has “crossed 100,000 users and 25,000 meetings in less than 48 hours.”
The Say Namaste app allows user to make video conferencing call using the meeting link and code. Users can visit the Say Namaste website and there one can create a meeting or join the existing meeting. When you create a meeting, it gives you meeting links and code so that other people can join the video call.
- ShareChat
ShareChat is an Indian video creation app similar to short-video making app Tiktok. The app allows users to communicate and interact with other users on the platform.
The app is developed by Mohalla Tech Private Limited, founded by Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Pratap Singh and Farid Ahsan. It was incorporated by Mohalla Tech Pvt Ltd on 8 January 2015.
ShareChat currently serves more than 60 million monthly active users in 15 different Indian languages. Most of its active users hail from tier-2 and tier-3 cities (like TikTok), with the majority of them relying on 2G networks.
- Share All
Share All app provides offline File Transfer & Sharing Sharing all types of files without using internet data made easy through a secure and stable way via Android phones. Transfer Data with speeds 300 times faster than Bluetooth with great quality and ease. Transfer & Share in mere seconds.
The Simple & Easy to use file sharing & transfer, this app is designed in a way that makes management of files very fast and efficient. Send music, images, videos, files, docs. Share without any limitations. Share apps, images, videos, music, documents. with no mobile data usage in a few easy steps. View and Play shared & received files. Check your video history and your received folder to view and play all types of files shared as well as received.
It also supports ‘Secure File Sharing’ with password protection. Junk File & Junk Photo Cleaner help you to clean up junk files, cache, duplicate files. Software Update Check will help you to check for updates for all your downloaded Apps, Games, System apps at regular intervals automatically. Share All is the best data sharing app on Android. It provides a fast, easy, effective and efficient way to transfer data & share files.
- Jio Browser
Jio Browser is developed by Reliance Industries. The browser app is touted to be a 'fast and lite' solution for Web browsing. To attract Indian users, the Jio Browser app has been given support for as many as eight Indian languages. There are also features such an Incognito mode and the ability to share your favourite news and video content with friends on social media. The Jio Browser for Android notably also features a download manager.
Among other features, the Jio Browser from RIL is designed to support regional languages. There are eight different languages, including Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu. By default, the browser works in English.
Jio Browser features
If Indian language support isn't your area of interest, the Jio Browser app has a home screen that displays news content and latest updates. The Jio Browser lists news from categories such as entertainment, politics, and sports. You can also move to the videos tab on the browser to watch the available videos while on-the-go.
The news and video content are being served on the Jio Browser directly from Hyderabad-based news aggregator platform PublicVibe. This seems similar to how UC Browser serves content through UC News.
The Jio Browser also has a default favourites tab that lists websites such as MyJio, BookMyShow, AJio, Amazon.in, Flipkart, and NDTV among others. Notably, you can't sort the listing on the favourites tab as per your preference or add your favourite websites. The browser, however, has the option to bookmark different URLs.
Now, coming to the circulation of this fake claim -
The letter misidentifies the regional executives of Google and Apple India. While it mentions one Neha Agarwal as the representative of Google India and Anuj Kr Reddy as that of Apple India, while in reality it has been found that Sanjay Gupta is the Country Manager of Google India and Ashish Choudhary is Apple’s Operation Head in India.
The letter also misspelt ‘MeitY’ as Moity.
Further, NIC officials also confirmed that the letter is fake.
Lastly, our sincere request to all will be refrain from spreading these lies. People are more than welcome to choose alternatives, but not at the cost of these lies.
