Patanjali’s WhatsApp challenger 'Kimbho' taken off amidst backlash
01 Jun 2018
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`Kimbho’, the desi’ video-chat app developed by Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali, which set off a buzz after its launch on Wednesday, was forced to be taken down amidst huge backlash amidst charges of technology piracy.
Within a few hours of its launch, it was alleged that Kimbho was simply a rebranded version of a messaging app called ‘Bolo Messenger’ that has been developed by a startup in Fremont, California, fake news busting site altnews.com reported.
Well-known French security researcher Elliot Alderson claimed on Twitter that the app description and format of the OTP SMS for uthentication for the Kimbho app were the same as one for Bolo.
Alderson further said he could easily access all the messages of the user, which raises security and privacy concerns. He also showed a video how easy it was “possible to choose a security code between 0001 and 9999 and send it to the number of your choice”.
Kimbho, which was positioned as a desi answer to WhatsApp, had initially created a buzz on an action-packed Thursday, faced high traffic and was taken down, after it attracted widespread criticism on social media.
This "swadeshi messaging platform" comes after Patanjali launched Swadeshi Samriddhi sim cards in asociation with state run BSNL on 27 May, NDTV reported.
Patanjali spokesperson SK Tijarawala said the chat app was only launched on a trial basis and would be launched officially later. “Patanjali’s Kimbho App was launched only for a day on Google Playstore on a trial basis. Within just three hours, 1.5 lakh people downloaded the app. Technical work is in progress and the app will be officially launched soon,” he tweeted on Thursday.
“Our trial version of Kimbho app is no longer available for download on any platform. We don’t take responsibility for many duplicate apps showing on anywhere. Beware,” he said in another tweet later in the day.
Launched with the tagline Ab Bharat Bolega (now India will talk), the app was developed under the guidance of Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna by their followers.
Just like WhatsApp, one can either send direct messages to the person or create new groups to send out messages on it. Apart from this, it enabled broadcast lists, follow celebrities and also doodle.
Before it took it down, Google Play Store had described Kimbho as a real time messaging app. "Kimbho empowers private group chat with free phone and video calling. It has dozens of amazing features to share text audio, photos, videos, stickers, quickies, location, GIF, Doodle and more," the description reads.
It had also received an average rating of 3.9-stars on Google Play.
“Kimbho in Sanskrit means What’s going on and what’s the news,” Tijarawala had tweeted in Hindi.
The Kimbho chat app is claimed to be AES encrypted and supports ghost chatting and auto-deletion of messages. With features that support videos, photos, doodle, stickers, GIF and location support, among others, `Kimbho’ was a claimed to be complete WhatsApp competitor.
The app also supported video chatting and interested users can also draw doodles to share with their friends.
Those who had downloaded Kimho said app occupy a meagre 23 MB of storage. Like WhatsApp, it needed access to almost all device permissions like microphone, contacts, photos, videos, WiFi, device ID and others.
However, the app courted controversies soon after its launch.
The Swadeshi Samriddhi SIM cards, launched by Patanjali, initially only available to employees and office bearers of Patanjali, will enablr consumers, once it is lunched for the public, will fetch a 10-per cent discount on Patanjali products. Patanjali has offered a recharge of Rs144 that would offer unlimited calls across the country 2GB data per day and 100 SMS as one of the plans. Besides, subscribers will get health, accidental and life insurance benefits, Patamjali claimed.
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