Apple has officially removed the offline messaging application, Bitchat, from its India App Store after a demand from the country's IT Ministry, Jack Dorsey said in an X post on Saturday (October 3, 2026).
"Government of India officially removes Bitchat from the App Store," the app's developer and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey wrote in his post, alongside a screenshot of what appeared to be a notice from Apple's App Review team.
Bitchat, built by Mr. Dorsey, had come under government scrutiny in July this year as well, when the Home Ministry's cybercrime arm, the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, had ordered GitHub to remove the Bluetooth-based messaging application.
On Saturday (October 3, 2026), Mr. Dorsey tagged Apple's latest notice in his post. In the notice, Apple said the app would be removed "per demand from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)" and because "it includes content that is illegal in India".
"We are writing to notify you that your application, per demand from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), will be removed from the India App Store because it includes content that is illegal in India, which is not in compliance with the App Review Guidelines," the attached notice said.
That particular section, the notice said, requires apps to follow all legal requirements in any location where they are offered. It says developers are responsible for understanding and complying with local laws, beyond Apple's own guidelines.
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