Koo App: All You Need To Know About The Indian Alternative To Twitter

After recent backlash being received by Twitter for refusing to take down some content ordered by the government, Koo App, the winner of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat app challenge is gaining huge popularity. The app was made during the challenge offering a Twitter-like experience but in Indian languages. The app has been developed for both iOS and Android.

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But the app is gaining more and more popularity after people have started boycotting Twitter and looking at similar alternatives. It gained further heat after government bodies like MeitY, and senior politicians like Union Minister Piyush Goyal, have been tweeting about the app and their accounts on that platform.

What Is Koo App?

Just like Twitter, the Koo app is another microblogging platform developed by Aprameya Radhakrishna and part of the Make In India and Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative. Through the app, users can express their opinions and converse with others.

Just 10 percent of India speaks English. Almost 1 billion people in India don’t know English. Instead they speak one of India’s 100s of languages. They are now getting access to smartphones and would love an internet in their language. Koo is an attempt to make the voice of these Indians heard. They can now participate on the internet in their mother tongue by listening to the views of some of the sharpest Indian minds and also speak their mind by sharing their thoughts.

The app was launched in March last year during the Digital India AatmaNirbhar Bharat Innovate Challenge and won the best app award as it had the potential to become a world-class app. The main idea of the app was to allow Indians to share their views in their language and since Twitter allowed only the English language, Koo was the Indian answer to Twitter as it allowed several local languages to be used on the app as well.

How To Download Koo?

Anyone can download Koo on their Android and iOS phones as it is already available for download. The app is available on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store as “Koo: Connect with Indians in Indian Languages”. The app is developed by Bombinate Technologies Private Limited and is named as the provider.

The app also has a website through which people can download the app through the links given for the appropriate platforms.

What Is Going On With Twitter And Koo?

The major reason for Koo to be in the news and making headlines suddenly after several months of its launch and winning the Aatmanirbhar Bharat app challenge is the fact that Twitter, the app whose Indian alternative Koo is trying to be is receiving huge backlash through users around the country for not removing several accounts flagged by the Government of India.

The disagreement between Twitter and the Indian Government comes after over 1000 accounts were directed to be removed by the Government to Twitter for spreading misinformation and provocative content about the protests. But Twitter refused to do so saying it didn’t take any action on accounts related to media entities, journalists, activists, and politicians.

But what made Koo come out on top in this situation was when Union Minister Piyush Goyal tweeted about him joining the app that is developed in the country. Apart from Piyush Goyal, other ministers such as Minister of Electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad and Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa also showed their support for the app and informed their account creation on Koo.

Also, some of the departments of the government of India such as the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), Central Board of Indirect Taxes (CBIC), National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT), India Post, MyGovIndia, Digital India, National Informatics Centre (NIC), and a few others also made themselves available on the new Indian made platform.

This fueled people to also consider shifting to Koo as it looked like an interesting option for many and the recent trend of supporting Indian made products and apps further helped its cause.