 "Govt confirms six-hour logout rule for WhatsApp under new SIM norms")
India has introduced certain regulatory requirements affecting WhatsApp, with parent company Meta indicating that it may need to verify whether a user’s SIM card remains active in their device.
Commination Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Wednesday that the SIM binding directions from November 2025 would remain in force. This requires the instant messaging app WhatsApp to do two things: to log out users on devices where they are not active every six hours and stop functioning if the user does not have the registered SIM provisioned on their device. February 28 is the deadline for compliance.
Scindia said that these rules and restrictions are for the safety and security of the nation to prevent anti-fraud reasons.
“As of now, there is no thought on an extension. The logout thing [after six hours] is only for multiple connections on the same instrument, when you go to your computer and so on and so forth … The rules stand as is at this point, and the reasons for that are very well-founded, which all of you are aware, not only from a fraud aspect, but also from a security aspect,” he said as reported by The Hindu.
“There are some issues which are national security issues and there are some issues which are revenue implication issues,” Scindia said. “On national security issues, there can be no compromise.”
On Monday (February 23, 2026), WhatsApp also told the Supreme Court that it does not read user’s personal messages or share data remaining end-to-end encrypted.
It is unclear whether the company also plans to comply with the six-hour logout period, which its industry association, IAMAI, warned the government would be disruptive for professionals who rely on WhatsApp Web and for families that share a single WhatsApp account.