BEEP: Pakistan to launch WhatsApp alternative for secure messaging

ISLAMABAD: The Government of Pakistan is preparing to launch a new secure messaging application, BEEP for government officials, modelled on China’s widely used WeChat platform.

The app, has been developed locally and is expected to begin rolling out in phases within the next two months, starting with federal ministries and their attached departments.

The project is on track to meet its June 30, 2026 deadline. The National Assembly Standing Committee on IT & Telecom was informed on Tuesday.

The standing committee Chairman, Syed Aminul Haque, asked National Information Technology Board (NITB) Chief Executive Faisal Ratyal to ensure the timely rollout of BEEP.

While giving a briefing to the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecom, the Chief Executive of the NITB, Faisal Ratyal, said the app aims to provide a secure communication platform for public-sector employees across the country.

According to the CEO of the NITB, the BEEP will be integrated with the federal e-Office system, allowing officials to exchange messages, share documents and coordinate workflows within government institutions.

The app features end-to-end encryption for text messages, voice calls and video communications, making it suitable for sensitive official discussions, he added.

The standing committee had earlier raised concerns over the security of data and official communication, keeping in view the incidents that occurred during global conflicts in 2024. The NITB CEO told the standing committee that now, new features have been incorporated into the app.

Responding to a question, Faisal Ratyal stressed that the BEEP app would be run on a usage-based fee model and efforts were underway to make the platform financially self-sustaining over time.

However, the IT secretary told the committee that revenue generation was not the primary goal, the top priority was to ensure secure, efficient, and reliable communication across state institutions.

The committee was informed that the National Computer Emergency Response Team (NCERT) had given the go-ahead for official deployment of the app.

Currently, Meta-owned WhatsApp is the most widely used platform for voice and video calls, as well as media file sharing. However, its data servers are stationed outside the country. In the case of BEEP, not only is its data server based in Pakistan, but its security features are also stringent, modelled on the Chinese WeChat platform.