Zoho’s messaging app Arattai, touted as the “swadeshi” alternative to WhatsApp, raced to over 3.5 lakh downloads in just three days this September, briefly surpassing WhatsApp on app stores. As it basks in its early momentum — albeit with ministerial endorsements — a bigger question looms: Can Arattai sustain the current growth trajectory or will its branding prove a barrier to mainstream acceptance? Experts weigh in.
Early adoption is no guarantee of growth
Prabhu Ram, VP, Industry Research Group, Cyber Media Research
In the digital economy, we have grown accustomed to winner-take-all dynamics. Google in search, Netflix in streaming, WhatsApp in messaging. Yet history shows that no market position is permanent. When incumbents stagnate, innovation and creative destruction breed new challengers. Network effects are powerful but not immutable.
India, where users spend an average of 7.5 hours daily on smartphones, provides a fertile playground for such shifts, earlier setbacks notwithstanding. This is why Arattai, backed by Zoho, has the potential to be a credible Indian challenger to WhatsApp. Unlike earlier domestic attempts, Arattai benefits from Zoho’s technology depth and a founder vision rooted in privacy, data sovereignty, end-to-end encryption, lightweight design, and iterative improvements aligned with local contexts.
Sridhar Vembu has also emphasised the importance of openness in messaging standards, drawing inspiration from UPI’s role in enabling interoperability, moving beyond closed ecosystems to offer users greater choice. While early adoption may have been driven by consumer curiosity, long-term sustained growth will hinge on enterprise traction. Zoho’s strong presence across over 250,000 SMBs globally – especially in India – provides Arattai with a strong enterprise foothold. It can provide strong early impetus for Arattai to evolve as an enterprise-grade messaging solution, and thereby gain vertical scale and deeper integration across professional workflows.
Crucially, success in the enterprise market can serve as a strong springboard for consumer adoption. Familiarity through work contexts builds trust, credibility, and habit—natural precursors to everyday use in personal communication. This enterprise-to-consumer pathway, underpinned by localised innovation and open standards, positions Arattai as a differentiated, homegrown alternative with the potential to reshape India’s digital communication landscape.
All said, WhatsApp’s entrenched network effects are massive as India’s default messaging layer. Arattai will need compelling differentiation, and will have to steer innovation at scale. Finally, sustaining a privacy-first, India-rooted positioning while building out monetisation and navigating India’s evolving regulatory landscape will test Zoho’s long-term resolve.
Relevance, not name recall, is key to success
Ambika Sharma, Founder & Chief Strategist, Pulp Strategy
The question of whether Arattai can mount a serious challenge to WhatsApp goes well beyond branding. India is one of the largest messaging markets in the world, and while WhatsApp is deeply entrenched, history has shown that no platform is invincible when consumer needs evolve. What Arattai needs is not to mimic WhatsApp but to create real differentiators that address privacy, community building, and integrations with India’s digital stack.
On the branding side, the concern around “Arattai” being a south Indian name is understandable, but I do not believe it will be the limiting factor. Popularity transcends language. Remember Kaizala, which was a Marathi word? It scaled because of its product relevance, not its name. Telegram, a name that feels retro, has massive adoption. Skype’s name has no inherent meaning, yet it dominated global communication for years. TikTok, with a name that sounds playful and foreign, became one of the fastest-growing apps in India before its ban. Consumers ultimately adopt platforms that solve their needs better, not because the name is universally familiar.
That said, Arattai’s branding will need careful thought if it wants to move from regional adoption to pan-India and eventually global relevance. The name may be an asset in creating authenticity and trust locally, but scaling will require a narrative that highlights performance, privacy, and features that stand apart from WhatsApp’s offering.
In my view, WhatsApp’s dominance is not just about the app but about the ecosystem it has built for payments, business communication, and commerce. If Arattai wants to challenge that, it must invest heavily in building a robust product roadmap, secure integrations, and a marketing strategy that communicates ambition beyond being an “Indian alternative.” That is what will decide its future, not just the branding debate.
Users care only about solutions, not lineage
Aryan Anurag, Co-founder, Binge Labs
Arattai has the ambition to challenge WhatsApp, but ambition without substance does not win markets. We have seen this play out before with Koo, which tried to ride a nationalist wave. The truth is users will not abandon global platforms simply out of sentiment. Switching costs are high, and without clear advantages Arattai risks being dismissed as just another Made-in-India experiment.
The launch so far has offered no standout feature that WhatsApp lacks.
“Uninstall WhatsApp” is not strategy. Users need a reason to shift. Hike, for example, once grew rapidly because of features WhatsApp did not have — privacy chats and stickers. But when WhatsApp matched those features, Hike lost its edge and disappeared. Messaging apps thrive on network effects, and those only shift when there are compelling differentiators.
Branding is another weak spot. Arattai is a difficult name for many to pronounce or recall. This is not a north versus south issue, it is a simple branding challenge. A name should be universal and frictionless. WhatsApp works because it is a clever twist on What’s Up. Arattai, by contrast, risks alienating users before they even download it.
The biggest red flag, however, is the lack of end-to-end encryption. Today’s users care deeply about privacy, and WhatsApp has made encryption a cornerstone of its positioning. If Arattai wants to be taken seriously, it must match or exceed this standard. In an era of constant data breaches, trust is non-negotiable.
I want Arattai to succeed. India deserves homegrown apps that can scale globally. But sentiment will fade. Only sharp branding, uncompromising security, and features that truly outpace WhatsApp can make Arattai more than a passing headline.
Risks being seen as niche rather than universal
Somdutta Singh, Founder and CEO, Assiduus Global
The launch of Arattai, often described as a homegrown alternative to WhatsApp, has drawn attention and curiosity. The larger question is whether it can truly challenge a platform that has become part of daily life for millions of Indians.
The reality is that this is unlikely to happen quickly. Messaging platforms are built on habit and networks, and WhatsApp has long been the default choice. Its convenience and familiarity make switching difficult, even when new apps emerge with strong campaigns or promises. Similar attempts by other platforms like Signal and Messenger have not been able to shift user behavior in India in any significant way.
WhatsApp also offers much more than simple chat. Payments, media sharing, business integrations, and its close link with the Meta ecosystem give it a depth and stability that competitors will struggle to match. For Arattai to make headway, it will need to deliver not only the basics but also a strong set of features that feel meaningful and practical to both individuals and businesses over time.
Being positioned as a “made in India” app can certainly help Arattai capture attention and goodwill. There was an early surge in downloads, reflecting this sentiment, and it shows there is curiosity around local platforms. Yet sustaining that momentum depends on proving reliability, privacy, and scale. Branding as a local solution may set it apart, but it also risks being seen as niche rather than universal, which could limit long-term adoption.
In the long run, the outcome remains uncertain. Much will depend on whether Arattai can evolve beyond its initial buzz, encourage users to shift habits, and offer compelling reasons to engage consistently. It might eventually carve out its own space in the market, though matching WhatsApp’s dominance will continue to be an uphill journey.
Will require far more than a ‘Made in India’ tag
Preety Auluck, Director, BeNext
When I first downloaded Arattai, I didn’t have huge expectations, but I must say that Zoho has done a great job cloning WhatsApp. My first reaction was that it’s a smart move. Indians have been using WhatsApp since 2009 for messaging and sharing files.
But the problem starts here.
Despite being a perfect copy of WhatsApp, Arattai will have a tough time replacing it.
Branding is a problem. Arattai means ‘chat’ in Tamil which is good for the South Indian audience, but the app name makes it foreign for the rest of the country. The app logo and app name are going to be big bottlenecks for the company. Yellow color is good for the logo background, but the logo design fails to attract. WhatsApp, despite being an American app, feels global, not just American, not just Indian.
WhatsApp sounds like “what’s up” but Arattai is not easy to pronounce and it cannot create a recall value.
So what will it take?
Branding and awareness: Indians first need to know that Arattai exists in the App Store and Play Store.
Differentiating elements: Arattai needs to be WhatsApp + 1, not WhatsApp + 0 so that Indians and foreigners feel the incentive to download it and replace WhatsApp.
Technical reliability: I faced a major glitch while syncing contacts. It can be a major put off point for early adopters.
Branding will hold the success of Arattai. WhatsApp was never remembered as American. A regional app does not have much scope to be adopted globally. Zoho could have done a better job for the logo and name.
Arattai has huge potential, but replacing WhatsApp will require far more than a “Made in India” tag.