Sources and documents: India plans to force smartphone makers to let users remove pre-loaded apps and will mandate screening OS updates via new security rules
India plans to force smartphone makers to allow removal of pre-installed apps and mandate screening of major operating system …
Context & Ripple Effects
This 2023 report lands mid-way through a long arc of India asserting control over what runs on phones sold in its market. As far back as 2018, the telecoms regulator tried to force every handset to support installing its anti-spam app — an early iPhone-baiting mandate over device software. By late 2025 the government had escalated from 'allow apps' to 'require apps', privately giving makers a 90-day deadline to preload the Sanchar Saathi cybersecurity app.
The proposed rules here cut in both directions at once: they give users the right to delete what manufacturers pre-install (a direct hit on OEM bloatware economics), while giving the state a screening gate over major OS updates. Later developments show how contested this terrain became — proposals to force source code sharing drew quiet Apple and Samsung pushback, and the Aadhaar preinstall requirement was ultimately dropped after industry resistance.
First-order effects
- Smartphone makers selling into India — where Samsung, Xiaomi, and Apple compete for the largest growth market left — would have to restructure their Indian software builds so any pre-installed app can be uninstalled by the user.
- Major OS updates would no longer ship to Indian devices directly: each release must first pass a government screening process, adding a state-controlled checkpoint between manufacturers and their installed base.
Second-order effects
- Pre-installation is a revenue line for Android vendors who bundle partner apps and services onto budget handsets; a removal mandate devalues that inventory in India specifically, pressuring makers to renegotiate or drop bundling deals rather than ship apps users can immediately delete.
- An OS-update screening regime gives India leverage comparable to what it sought with the source-code disclosure rules that prompted Apple's and Samsung's pushback — expect vendors to lobby, slow-walk compliance, or segment Indian firmware further from global builds.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, India is building a standing regulatory layer over device software — spanning mandated installs, user-removal rights, and update review — that treats the operating system as infrastructure subject to state approval, a template other large markets could adapt for sovereignty or security claims.
- For global vendors, the endgame is a fragmented device-software map: country-specific builds with different install rights and update gates, raising engineering and compliance costs until software governance becomes a standard trade-negotiation item.
The trend: Governments are extending regulation from phone hardware into the device's software layer itself — dictating what ships, what can be deleted, and which updates get approved.