Is WhatsApp about to see a worthy contender in India? A messaging app that was originally soft-launched in January 2021, Zoho’s Arattai is getting a massive push as a made-in-India messaging app, witnessing an over 100x adoption surge in India over the past few months. So much so that the founder has made public statements committing security features and upgrades to app users in the near future.
‘Arattai’ is the Tamil word for a casual chat. The app was launched by Sridhar Vembu, founder of Zoho Softwares, who has said on record that the sudden surge of downloads has surprisingly come even before a major haul of updates that are scheduled for November this year. In the first week of October, Vembu said that in just three days, Arattai’s daily downloads shot up from 3,000 to 35,000.
According to the World Population Review’s report for 2025, India has the largest number of WhatsApp users in the world — a whopping 853.8 million. It is followed by Brazil, Indonesia and the United States, with 148 million, 112 million and 98 million users, respectively. With a large majority of cellphone users being that of Apple in the US, and using iMessage on their phones, the low adoption rate in the country is explicable. In comparison to WhatsApp, the same report also ranked India at the top in the number of Telegram users, at 83.8 million users. Meanwhile, messaging app Signal has about 70 million takers in the country — both vastly less popular than WhatsApp.
Historically, we have seen that despite other platforms being available, Indian users have still largely remained loyal to WhatsApp over the years, with other platforms seeing some hike during the Covid years. That incidentally was also around the time Zoho launched Arattai.
However, will it be that easy to replace WhatsApp in a country where the user rate is the highest in the world? Or have app users gotten accustomed to the rapid trends and platforms becoming banned or obsolete in favour of new ones, that this shift will not prove a thorn in their sides at all?
So what makes Arattai special enough to draw Indians’ attention and give competition to WhatsApp? The government’s push for indigenous products including digital platforms, and the founder’s promises to level up the messaging app, to provide the same, if not more, privacy and security features than its competitor in the market are some of the reasons for the increased interest.
Arattai can be used on mobile phones, desktops, and tablets, and allows the user to send text messages, videos, images and audio notes to individuals as well as in groups. According to Vembu, founder of the app, the platform has been created with a ‘privacy first’ philosophy.
In interviews with notable business publications, Vembu has revealed that the app can look forward to “end-to-end encryption, secret chats, and payment integration — all while staying rooted in Zoho’s product-first, privacy-driven philosophy”. As of October, Arattai is clocking over 100,000 meetings and half a million calls daily. Vembu has also pointed out across statements that the technology is hosted completely in India, in the interest of data sovereignty and other compliance regulations and requirements.
The app has also publicly received government support, which undoubtedly sparked chatter online, and may have played a role in the sudden surge of users. Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw urged people to use domestic digital platforms, while Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan spoke of Arattai as a “secure, user-friendly, and completely free” app on social media. Certain company CEOs have also openly praised the app on their X handles and other social media account as well.
With chatter and speculation about the success of this app making the rounds online, the longevity of Arattai will be tested in how the app can handle heavy user traffic, how advanced is the end-to-end encryption and chat privacy technology.
Even with a new and indigenous messaging app making its mark in India, it is important to note that a large number of Indians that are using Facebook Messenger, Signal and Telegram are not using these in favour of WhatsApp, rather they are using them along with WhatsApp — for certain functions, or groups, or sharing of specific media, etc. Even iPhone users in India will also have WhatsApp on their phones, because a large number of mobile phone owners are Android users, which do not support iMessage.
It remains to be seen whether by the end of the year, post the launch of the enhanced features, Arattai will simply be another added logo on the average Indian’s widget screen, or becomes the ‘super app’ for Indians as it is intended to be, giving stiff competition to the reign of WhatsApp.
