WhatsApp, the messaging app from Meta that millions of Indians use every day, is facing a critical moment in India. Recent government directions threaten to disrupt how the platform works for everyday users and businesses.
Issued late last month, the directions ask certain app-based communication services to keep accounts continuously linked to an active SIM card. They also impose stricter controls on how the apps function across devices. New Delhi states the measures aim to curb rising cyber fraud in India, the world’s most populous nation. However, digital advocacy groups, policy experts, and industry groups representing major digital platforms, including Meta, have warned that the approach risks regulatory overreach. They caution it could disrupt legitimate use, especially in a country where WhatsApp has become essential infrastructure for personal communication and small-business commerce.
The directions, which app providers including Meta, Telegram, and Signal must comply with within 90 days of their November 28 issuance, require messaging apps to remain tied to the SIM card used at sign-up. The web and desktop versions of these apps will also require users to log out every six hours and re-link their devices via a QR code to regain access.
The telecom ministry stated that mandatory continuous SIM-device binding and periodic logout ensure every active account and web session is anchored to a live, identity-verified SIM. This is intended to restore traceability of numbers used in scams. The ministry added that India suffered cyber-fraud losses exceeding 228 billion rupees, or about 2.5 billion dollars, in 2024 alone. The government has clarified that the rules do not apply when the SIM remains in the device and the user is roaming.
While the directions apply broadly to major instant messaging apps, their impact is likely to be felt most acutely by WhatsApp, which is used by more than 500 million people in India. The app’s adoption in India is also unusually deep. As much as 94 percent of WhatsApp’s Indian monthly user base opened the app daily in November, while 67 percent of WhatsApp Business users in the country did the same. By comparison, 59 percent of WhatsApp monthly users in the U.S. opened the app daily, alongside 57 percent for WhatsApp Business.
Many merchants in India rely on the WhatsApp Business app, typically registering the account on a SIM-linked phone while handling customer conversations through WhatsApp’s web or desktop client on another device. Unlike larger companies that use automated systems, these small businesses access customers directly through WhatsApp Business and its web interface. This means mandatory SIM binding and frequent forced logouts could break their workflows for order-taking, support, and customer engagement.
The potential disruption in India comes as WhatsApp has been steadily expanding its multi-device and companion-device capabilities, allowing users and businesses to stay logged in across phones, browsers, and devices without relying on a single active smartphone.
The directions arrive as WhatsApp is undergoing a significant shift in India, its biggest market. Growth is increasingly driven by retaining existing users rather than rapidly expanding its new user base. WhatsApp’s monthly active users in India on mobile devices are up 6 percent year-over-year, even as downloads have fallen nearly 49 percent. Compared with late 2022, monthly active users are up 24 percent, while downloads are down 14 percent.
Data shows WhatsApp Business has consistently recorded more estimated first-time installs than WhatsApp Messenger in India since early 2024. This reflects how growth has increasingly been driven by merchant adoption rather than broad-based consumer expansion. It is common for merchants to maintain separate WhatsApp identities for personal and customer communication, often enabled by dual-SIM phones. WhatsApp Business monthly active users in India were still growing year over year in late 2025 and are up more than 130 percent compared with 2021, far outpacing WhatsApp Messenger’s roughly 34 percent growth over the same period.
In a statement last week, the industry body Broadband India Forum, whose members include Meta, said the measures could result in material inconvenience and service disruption for ordinary users, adding that they raise serious questions of technical feasibility.
The directions hinge on a new and still-contested classification of Telecommunication Identifier User Entities under India’s telecom cybersecurity rules. This effectively places messaging apps within a telecom framework, a shift from their traditional regulation under the country’s IT Act, through executive directions rather than formal legislation. Policy experts note the directions derive their power from delegated legislation and that the lack of public consultations risks creating compliance friction without addressing the underlying fraud vectors.
For now, companies including Meta have limited room to challenge the directions in court. Challenging them would typically require showing they exceed the scope of the underlying law or violate constitutional protections, a high bar that may be difficult to meet. Meta declined to comment on the matter.