The ‘swadeshi messaging’ Kimbho application by Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali, which was first launched on May 30, 2018, was supposed to be officially announced on Monday but that has been postponed until further notice.
The app is already available for both iOS and Android. With the kind of features that the Kimbho app brings to the users, it can be used as a tool for messages to personal contacts as well as team chat for your business.
It lets you chat, voice and video call, send multimedia, video conference and has a suit of other features. Kimbho can also be used on the web via a Chrome or Firefox client.
Another project by Patanjali, Bolo Messenger, was launched earlier this week in competition with the likes of WhatsApp as it supports chatting via text and on video too.
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Features
- Secure: All of your sessions on Kimbho are end to end encrypted
- Chat: In a chat with your contacts, you can use emoticons, stickers and freehand doodle
- Multimedia: Photos, videos, documents, and voice and video messages can be sent to contacts
- Group chat: You can create a group of multiple contacts — like a chat room
- Maps: This enables you to see your contact’s live location
- Conferencing: You can also conduct audio or video conferences with multiple contacts
- Collaboration: You can share document files like ppt, pdf, xls and more with your contacts and share your screen too
- Scheduled meeting: You can schedule meetings on the Kimbho app
- Multi-device login: Logging in to multiple devices at the same time and receiving notifications on both of them at the same time is possible
- Call transfer: Transfer calls to any of the devices logged in with the same number
- Web: Use the app via your PC/Laptop using Kimbho web on Chrome and Firefox
- Auto delete: You can set for files sent to a user to auto delete after a certain time
- Review messages: Negative messages can be flagged and reviewed and even deleted
- Whiteboard: The collaborative feature of the Kimbho app is a real-time, multi-user, multi-platform whiteboard. It can be used by multiple users at once to either teach, explain, sketch — for fun, study or work.
- Screen sharing: You can share your screen from your browser to the device.
- Far-end camera control: Remote users camera can be controlled for a better view in a video call
- Miscellaneous: Users of the Kimbho app can share location, set custom pictures, wallpapers, notification sounds, broadcast messages to multiple contacts.
But the apps might be a privacy hazard
The Kimbho app, as well as the recently launched Bolo Messenger app, ask for a tonne of permissions, which might seem a little too much for those who like their privacy on the internet.
While both of these apps serve the same purpose as WhatsApp, Telegram and the likes do, it might make some waves under the garb of a ‘swadeshi messaging’ app. But, it’s unlikely that the app will be more successful than the Facebook-owned WhatsApp, which has an estimated 1.5 billion monthly users.
At the time of writing this report, Kimbho app has garnered north of 50,000 downloads and Bolo messenger more than 100,000 on Android.
Permissions required by the Kimbho app:
- Calendar
- Camera
- Contacts
- Location
- Microphone
- Phone
- SMS
- Storage
While these permissions are optional for users, but for the app to work to its full potential, users will need to grant these to the app.
With the camera and microphone permission in mind, the app’s Far-end camera control feature might seem shady to some.
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Permissions required by the Bolo messenger:
- Identity
- Contacts
- Location
- SMS
- Photos/Media/Files
- Camera
- Microphone
- WiFi connection information
- Device ID and call information
Related read: How to turn off location access for a specific app on iPhone and Android
According to the following screenshot from the Kimbho website, the app was launched on May 30, 2018
But then Kimbho was supposed to be officially announced on August 27, 2018
This was after it was once discontinued from the Google Play store in June 2018.
And according to the author of the Kimbho’s blog post, it wasn’t official in the beginning. Confusing much?
Translates to: Kimbho app was already launched, this is just an official announcement.
The app has been available on the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store for a while and has a combined 150,000-plus installs with the Bolo messenger.
Since the apps have already been available for the public on the respective app stores, an ‘official announcement’ coming almost three months after the launch seems a bit odd.
Skeptics are of the view that this app will only make it easier for the government to identify and crack down on those who dissent as has been the case with WhatsApp in the recent past.
We appreciate your excitement over official launch of @KimbhoApp we inform you that trials, review & upgradation is in process to make #किम्भो #Kimbho most safe, convenient & secure #Swadeshi app of your first choice. We will announce new date of official launch asap @ANI pic.twitter.com/hBO0A5tzOU
— Acharya Balkrishna (@Ach_Balkrishna) August 27, 2018
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