Made in India Video Chat App ‘Say Namaste’ To Rival Zoom & Google

Made in India video chat application Say Namaste claims to have more than 100,000 users on its platform.

Say Namaste is a video chat platform created by an Indian startup from Mumbai.

(Photo: The Quint)

Ever since news broke out that video chat apps like Zoom had vulnerabilities that could potentially expose user data to hackers, many tech giants and start-ups started rolling out their own video chat app platforms.

Since this is an opportune moment to be in the video chat apps business, Indian tech startup Inscripts developed it’s own video chat platform dubbed ‘Say Namaste’ which lets multiple users connect on a video platform.

We spoke with Anuj Garg, CEO, Inscripts about Say Namaste, and how it can challenge other video chat apps like Zoom and Google Duo.

More importantly, how does it resolve the security issue that most users are wary about right now, and what is the need for an Indian video chat platform?

Why Say Namaste Over Zoom?

As per the company, Say Namaste is a secure, private & encrypted 1:1 and multi-party text, voice, and video conferencing solution.

The video is not end-to-end encrypted just like what we get on apps like Zoom. Apple’s Facetime is a more secure video chat platform and comes with end-to-end encryption for video.

The fact that its entire Say Namaste infrastructure, as well as all data transmission, is on servers located in India, ensures that the data is stored locally.

We use A256 bit encryption for all our data transmission and all user data is encrypted in-transit and at-rest. To ensure the security of video conferences, we do not store any conversations or videos on our servers.

Anuj Garg, CEO, Inscripts

The product has been developed keeping in mind local sensibilities and offers multiple regional languages which will help reach out to a wider audience.

Going the Extra Megabyte For Security

Since data security is key for users the company says that the app is compliant with GDPR. Also, while the developers are fully compliant with ISO 9001:2015 certification they are also looking to be SOC 2 and ISO 2701 certified.

We are working on two-factor authentication, and moving the password to an OTP which would help verify participants of a video call.

Anuj Garg, CEO, Inscripts

For enterprises, the company is looking to enable “directory indexing of email addresses by organisations, which can then restrict video call sessions to only a list of pre-selected email addresses, to keep intruders out of the call.”

Inscripts is still testing out the SMS OTP access and says it will be launched as part of the premium offering.

Video chat apps like Microsoft Teams also offer two-factor authentication and also SMS OTP for users, but to use the service you need to subscribe to Microsoft’s premium account.

What About the User Interface?

The reason that video chat apps like Zoom have become so popular is that they are free and offer a very simple and easy to navigate user interface.

The UI for the made-in-India video chat app is not so different from other video conferencing apps which is why users will not have any trouble using it.

Especially for a video chat interface, the design must be clean and self-explanatory, so that a user can perform the desired action without having to spend too much time understanding the platform or clicking on several steps before finally landing at the right page.

Anuj Garg, CEO, Inscripts

Inscripts is also working towards building the product to cater to low bandwidth connections as well. The company says that it has more than 7,00,000 users although it’s still in its beta phase.

What is important to note is that the Android and iOS versions of Say Namaste are not available on the respective app stores (at the time of publishing this story) although the company says it has been published from their end and will be available soon.

In the meantime, you can visit http://www.saynamaste.in to use the service.

Indian users today have begun to understand the importance of individual data security and privacy and a service like Say Namaste is trying to cater to that.

Initially, it will be difficult for Say Namaste to capture a large audience compared to other more popular apps out there but the ‘India connect’ and its data localisation prowess might just help the platform garner more users in the days to come.