A day after its launch, Ramdev’s new swadeshi messaging app Kimbho has disappeared from Google Play store. Ramdev had announced that this app has been developed to take on rivals such as WhatsApp and WeChat which provide free messaging services worldwide.
If you search Kimbho on play store, you will not find this app and if you search on your PC, you will be redirected to a page that reads “We’re sorry, the requested URL was not found on this server.”However, it is still available on iOS App Store.
A tweet on the official page of this app reads “We are facing extremely high traffic on Kimbho. We are in process of upgrading our servers and will be back shortly. Sorry for the inconvenience. Please stay tuned.”
We are facing extremely high traffic on Kimbho. We are in process of upgrading our servers and will be back shortly.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Please stay tuned.#Kimbho #kimbhoApp #Swadeshi— Kimbho Chat App (@KimbhoApp) May 31, 2018
Twitter was quick to react to Kimbho’s issues and here are some tweets regarding this:
Ramdev will be spying on ur phone
If you plan to install #Kimbho pls delete my contact from your phone. With all this permission ramdev will be spying on ur phone pic.twitter.com/ABQGuybuQ7
— Riyaz Ahmed (@simpleriyaz) May 30, 2018
Did they develop it for Patanjali?
Dear @yogrishiramdev and @tijarawala… While on Android #Kimbho app says its from Patanjali, on iOS it says its from Appdios…? Did they develop it for Patanjali? Also, How does the app have Mawra Hocane's pic in the ad on play store? If you know what I mean. pic.twitter.com/x5bqPaiH0U
— Brijesh Deb 🇮🇳 (@brijeshdeb) May 30, 2018
It claims to be desi but looks very Chinese
Meet the new #Kimbho App for chats!!! Getting on it now!!! It claims to be desi but looks very Chinese and somehow I think 🤔 it’s an existing IM app that’s now renamed. Let’s see whether I have friends on this app to chat with. ‘Bolo’ agar yeh Satya hai toh!!! pic.twitter.com/3Z2V9TpBtZ
— Siddhartha Sharma (@SidnChips) May 31, 2018
The Kimbho app launched after Patanjali announced about partnering with BSNL to make mobile sims which will be only available to the company’s staff in the initial days. Patanjali’s spokesperson SK Tijarawala had earlier tweeted about this app that read “Now Bharat will speak. After launching sim cards, Ramdev has launched a new messaging application called ‘Kimbho’. Now WhatsApp will be given a competition. Our own #SwadeshiMessagingplatform. Download it directly from Google Play store.”
Also Read: Patanjali In Partnership With BSNL Has Launched SIM cards
Before getting disappeared, this app was installed over 5,000 times on play store and was having several issues according to the comments. Elliot Anderson, the French security researcher had found security holes in Kimbho and he said that he could access all messages users were sending through this app.
Ok, I will stop here. The #Kimbho #android #app is a security disaster. I can access the messages of all the users…🤦♂️
— Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) May 30, 2018
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
Faisal Kawoosa, Head New Initiatives, CyberMedia Research (CMR), wrote on Twitter that “It will not be easy for “Kimbho” to create a space dominated by WhatsApp for just on being “Swadeshi.”
