WhatsApp appears to test SIM-verification feature amid DoT compliance push

WhatsApp tests a SIM-verification feature to comply with India's DoT directives, potentially impacting user access and login practices.

Online messaging platform WhatsApp appears to be preparing to comply with the Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) SIM-binding directive issued late last year.

The directive requires messaging platforms to ensure that a user’s registered SIM card is provisioned on the handset used to access the service, and to disable access if it is not. It also includes a potentially disruptive requirement that web-based instances, such as WhatsApp Web, be logged out every six hours.

The directions were issued on November 28, 2025, by the DoT’s AI & Digital Intelligence Unit, under its expanded authority to regulate Telecommunication Identifier User Entity (TIUE)—defined as any online service that uses a phone number as an identifier.

Meta, WhatsApp’s parent company, had pushed back through industry bodies it is a part of, including the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), arguing that the measures could cause “hurdles to the modern communication habits such as use of international numbers during travel [or] secondary devices”. 

In the latest beta versions of WhatsApp, code references to the SIM-binding directions have been detected. A Meta spokesperson declined to comment on the development, while a DoT spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to queries on whether the direction would come into force this month as originally ordered.

The new code, discovered by WABetaInfo—an independent blog which tracks changes in WhatsApp’s code often much before public rollout—includes a prompt on the sign-in screen saying, “Due to regulatory requirements in India, WhatsApp needs to check that your SIM card is in your device.”