Copycats of Patanjali's Kimbho app crop up on Google Play Store

A day after Patanjali withdrew its messaging app Kimbho, several copycat apps cropped up on Google Play Store on Friday.

Launched on Wednesday by Baba Ramdev’s fast-moving consumer group Patanjali as a competitor to popular messaging app WhatsApp, Kimbho was taken off Google Play Store and Apple Store by Friday.

The French security researcher who goes by the name of Elliot Alderson on Twitter, tweeted on Friday:

#Indian #android #developers are fast. If you search #Kimbho on the PlayStore you will find a lot of fake apps. They renamed their apps with #Khombi in the title. pic.twitter.com/QbPPUwRPG1

— Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) June 1, 2018

A search for Kimbho on the Apple Store returned no results.

Alderson is the same person who has notified and solved several security issues in platforms and websites across India and other countries. He is also a vocal critic of the security and privacy issues around Aadhaar, India’s controversial identity programme.

He took on Ramdev’s latest introduction to the technology arena on Twitter, pointing out several security flaws such as compromising user privacy and bad coding practices.

A Twitter user pointed out on Thursday that Kimbho was a rip-off of an existing chat application.

It is build on an app called "BOLO". Kimbho team is so dumb that they didnt even changed the OTP SMS format!! Even the description n pics used are same as Bolo app! https://t.co/QKGjYC1y2Jpic.twitter.com/40yRxZKbLX

— Abhishek Singh (@ThakurrSaab) May 31, 2018

The Twitter handle of Kimbho Chat app tweeted saying the app was taken off Play Store due to "extremely heavy traffic."

We are facing extremely high traffic on Kimbho. We are in process of upgrading our servers and will be back shortly.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Please stay tuned.#Kimbho #kimbhoApp #Swadeshi

— Kimbho Chat App (@KimbhoApp) May 31, 2018

It added in another tweet that the version launched on Wednesday was a trial one, and warned followers of duplicates doing the rounds.

Our trial version of #kimbho app is no longer available for download on any platform.We don't take any responsibility for many duplicate apps showing anywhere.Beware! Please stay tuned.#पतंजलि का #किम्भो एप का ट्रायल वर्जन अब कहीं भी डाउनलोड के लिए उपलब्ध नहीं है Thank You ! :)

— Kimbho Chat App (@KimbhoApp) June 1, 2018