New York: A chat app that quickly became popular in the United Arab Emirates for communicating with friends and family is actually a spying tool used by the government to track its users, The New York Times has reported.

The government uses ToTok to track conversations, locations, images and other data of those who install the app on their phones, The New York Times reported, citing US officials familiar with a classified intelligence assessment and the newspaper's own investigation.

The Emirates has long blocked Apple's FaceTime, Facebook's WhatsApp and other calling apps. Emirati media has been playing up ToTok as an alternative for expatriates living in the country to call home to their loved ones for free.

The relatively new app, which allows users to make video and voice calls for free, was downloaded millions of times. Credit:Emarat Al Youm

The Times says ToTok is a few months old and has been downloaded millions of times, with most of its users in the Emirates, a US-allied federation of seven sheikhdoms, including Abu Dhabi and Dubai, on the Arabian Peninsula.