Patanjali tried to take on Whatsapp with its Kimbho messenger but failed badly due to the bugs present in the app. Kimbho was promoted as a Swadeshi swadeshi messenger to communicate with friends and relatives and is back on play store with a new name. Kimbho is now changed to Bolo Messenger and Patanjali has taken its name off as an associate partner. Interestingly, Kimbho had managed to get downloaded over 1-lakh times in a single day before it was taken off.
The comeback of Kimbho has again raised the speed of its downloads as Indians are looking to try new apps for chat purpose. The logo has changed slightly but most of the functions like sending texts, voice clips and images are similar. Aditi Kamal, the lead developer also said that they’ve fixed the security flaws that had plagued Kimbho.
Also Read: Meet Aditi Kamal, The Engineer Behind Patanjali’s Messaging App
Bolo Messenger isn’t a complete rebranding of Kimbho as Aditi had developed a messenger called Bolo but didn’t get a good response. She rebranded Bolo as Kimbho, and used the popularity of Patanjali to promote the app. Patanajali’s official spokesperson had said that this app was a Swadeshi version of WhatsApp which made a huge impact on Kimbho’s popularity and it got a lot of media coverage too. When Kimbho has tested by security researcher Robert Baptiste, he exposed the flaws of the app and posted about them on Twitter.
Hi @KimbhoApp before trying to compete #WhatsApp, you can try to secure your app. It's possible to choose a security code between 0001 and 9999 and send it to the number of your choice #kimbhoApp pic.twitter.com/YQqK8lfIeI
— Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) May 30, 2018
Also Read: Ramdev’s Swadeshi Messaging App Disappears From Play Store
After facing criticism, Patanjali has now announced that Bolo is not its official app, and a new version of Kimbho will be released in the coming months. Aditi has also clarified that she’s not working on the second version of the Kimbho app.
It appears that Bolo is still using the fame of Patanjali by writing Baba Ramdev and Patanjali Chairman Balkrishna Acharya’s name to promote its app.
परम पूज्य स्वामी Ramdev जी महाराज एवम् श्रद्धेय आचार्य श्री के आशीर्वाद से whatsapp का स्वदेशी विकल्प is available to download for Android – https://t.co/rk2LGnV95L
मै आप सब के सहयोग की आभारी हूँ. Thank you for staying with us and supporting Swadesi app.Ab Bharat Bolega!
— Aditi Kamal (@KamalAditi) July 13, 2018
The whole scenario clearly shows that Indian are now trying to focus on the messenger market as international brands like Whatsapp have become an addiction for the people of our country.
