Back in July this year, Apple got itself in a bit of a trouble with Telecom Regulatory of India (TRAI), the country’s apex government body for regulating and overseeing telecom services. The bone of contention in this case was TRAI’s ‘Do Not Disturb’ app, which Apple refused to allow on its App Store, citing concerns regarding privacy of user data.
While it was reported a few months back that Apple was developing a DND app of its own in compliance with TRAI’s regulations, that didn’t happen either. Ultimately, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India threatened to ban iPhones from Indian cellular networks if Apple didn’t come to an agreement over the issue. Thankfully, the long-drawn tussle seems to be finally over.
According to VentureBeat, Apple has finally approved TRAI’s ‘Do Not Disturb’ app, and listed it on its App Store. This was reportedly also confirmed by an Apple spokesperson in India.
To verify the claim, we checked on our end and we can confirm that indeed, the app is available on iOS App Store. Called ‘TRAI DND – Do Not Disturb’, the app’s listing shows it to be compatible with all Apple devices running iOS 12.1 and above. A little over 9.1MB in size, the app (as per the listing details), allows users to register their cellular numbers in the country’s ‘Do Not Disturb’ database, and even report spam SMS/calls after the registration has been done.
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While both Apple and Indian government can now rest easy, the news should come as a big respite for the millions of iPhone users in the country, who have been under the risk of being left with ‘non-functional’ smartphones for months now.
