India, April 2 -- Amid push back and requests from the industry, the Centre has reportedly extended the deadline for compliance with SIM-binding measures to December 31. 

"The government has extended the deadline for applicability of SIM-binding rule to December 31 following representation from the industry players," an official told news agency PTI.

The rules, issued by the telecom department (DoT) in December 2025, require messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal to remain continuously linked to a user's SIM card. It also mandates that users of web or desktop versions of these apps be logged out every six hours.

As per the PTI report, DoT has now removed the mandatory six-hour logout rule for web versions of these apps....