Arattai is a messaging app developed by the Indian tech company Zoho. The campaign has taken India by storm — going viral within a matter of days, accumulating views and shares in the millions. Arattai officially launched in 2020 with a soft launch in 2021. It provides end-to-end encrypted messaging, voice calls, and video calls to anyone who registers – just like that other popular WhatsApp. With its fast-growing user base, the app serves as an archetype for the fast increasing requirement of indigenous tech solutions in the Indian subcontinent.
Arattai had a remarkable accomplishment, racking up over seven million downloads. This amazing accomplishment came only seven days after their most recent promotional splash. Prior to this explosion, the app had less than 10,000 downloads in August. This data, which you can find here, comes from Sensor Tower, a mobile market intelligence company. As of September, more than 95% of Arattai’s monthly active users were based in India. This huge number is an early indicator of robust domestic interest in the platform.
The Indian government has strongly endorsed Arattai – in fact, it’s been an important element of the Indian government’s overall push for technological self-reliance. From Dharmendra Pradhan, federal minister of skills development and entrepreneurship, who has publicly supported the app. He is asking citizens to use “India-made apps” instead of foreign apps. That governmental support might help explain how quickly Arattai has taken hold and become popular.
Zoho CEO Mani Vembu emphasized the significance of Arattai’s growth, stating, “In just three days, we saw daily sign-ups increase from 3,000 to 350,000. In terms of our user base’s active users, we saw a 100X jump, and that number is continuing to rise.” He was particularly excited that the app is something that empowers users to control their data. It would be in line with India’s draconian information technology laws.
Even with Arattai’s popularity and government support, experts have pointed out some troubling issues with data privacy on Arattai. For instance, the platform needs to comply with Indian laws. These regulations mandate that major social media platforms provide the government with user data in certain situations. Shashidhar KJ, a tech expert, commented on the implications of these regulations: “The government wants to establish traceability of messages citing security concerns and this can be done easily without end-to-end encryption.”
Arattai is in the process of integrating end-to-end encryption for text messaging. Vembu reassured users about the company’s commitment to privacy: “Once full end-to-end encryption is rolled out, even we won’t have access to the content of user conversations. And we’ll be clear with our users about what the law requires of us. He admitted that as a team, they first intended to roll out the app after migrating to full encryption. They thought they could achieve that goal in a matter of months.
While Arattai’s features and design have garnered praise from users on social media, some industry experts remain skeptical about its long-term viability. Prasanto K Roy remarked, “The product has to be good, but even then, it’s unlikely that it will be able to replace an app that has billions of existing users in the world.” Regardless, Arattai currently faces a self-imposed but existential challenge in attracting new users. 1 – Holding their attention is harder still, thanks to intense competition from entrenched players.