Zoho’s Arattai Tops Downloads; What Will It Need To Stick Beyond The Hype?

Every couple of years, a “Made In India” social media platform or a trendy new app takes centre stage and grabs the limelight. Downloads surge overnight, charts are topped, and headlines proclaim the arrival of a homegrown alternative to global tech giants.

From Moj during the post-Chinese app ban frenzy to Koo in the “Twitter versus India” standoff, and from Jio trying its hand at building a Zoom clone with JioMeet to Zoho-backed Arattai this week, multiple apps have ridden this digital ‘swadeshi’ sentiment.

Yet once the early fervour dies, the true test comes in the form of user retention, product quality, network effects and trust. This is where many of these apps struggle to retain users, slowly slipping out of conversations and phones alike.

From around 3,000 users, Arattai’s downloads are said to have surged to over 3.5 Lakh in just three days, topping app store charts and even surpassing WhatsApp in some specific categories — and as we will see that is not very surprising.

In a gist, the instant messaging (IM) app has features such as end-to-end encryption, group calls, and support for over 20 languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, and Arabic.

While the traction has undoubtedly got many talking about the app, will Arattai actually become a credible alternative to WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal? Does India finally have an answer to the global giants?

Lasting Beyond The Hype

Arattai is far from the first Indian IM app looking to carve a niche in the market. Airtel-backed Hike started well before the modern smartphone era, and after multiple pivots, it had to eventually shut down. 

“The hype and sentiment are always good to see. Downloads are easy, but retention is where the real battle lies. For network-driven products, that challenge is a hundred times harder, especially if the app is seen as just a clone. Sentiment alone won’t move people’s networks,” Kavin Mittal, founder and former CEO of Hike told Inc42. 

In its defence, Arattai claims it is just not a clone.

When Inc42 asked if Arattai is positioning itself as India’s answer to WhatsApp, Jeri John, Global Product Head at Zoho’s Arattai, was quick to distance the app from any comparisons .

“We’re not trying to be a replacement,” he said. 

He said that Arattai is instead being designed around India’s linguistic diversity, privacy concerns, and citizens’ desire for a homegrown product they can trust.

It is pertinent to note that while Arattai claims to prove end to end encryption in voice and video calling, it is yet to provide the same for its chat feature, something that’s going to be used heavily by the users.

“For text messages, media, and backups, we’re actively working on rolling out end-to-end encryption. It’s a top priority on our roadmap,” the Arattai product head told Inc42. 

Notably, Arattai’s architecture is backed entirely by Zoho’s own data centres, giving the company complete control over how data is stored and processed.

This still leaves a trust gap. Unlike WhatsApp, which publishes a detailed security whitepaper for its Signal-derived protocol, or Signal itself, which is open source and audited, Arattai has not shared any public cryptographic documentation. 

Without independent audits, assurances around privacy remain promises rather than guarantees. John did not delve into these matters, but given the fact that Arattai has been around since January 2021, it has had plenty of time to act on these matters. 

How Arattai Plans To Retain Users

Let’s look deeper at retention metrics for Arattai to answer whether the hype is resulting in engagement. 

Even with the app’s current surge in usage, which has surged 185X week-over-week between September 21–27 according to Sensor Tower data, the platform has to travel a long distance to be compared with the global giants. 

Notably, the app’s daily active users (DAUs) have jumped 40X, from roughly 1,000 average DAUs over the past 30 days to about 2 Lakh+ DAUs on the weekend of September 26–27. For context, WhatsApp currently has an estimated 500 Mn DAUs in India.

The company is realistic about the challenge of WhatsApp’s network effect but believes coexistence is possible. “Our job now is to earn trust through reliability, performance, and features that matter to customers,” Zoho’s John added.

As per John, the company’s main focus currently is on smoother multi-device sync, richer file sharing, better group management, polls, and UPI integration. 

These are the basics on WhatsApp, but Zoho wants to set itself apart from Meta, which owns WhatsApp and other allied businesses and a massive ad empire. The company claims that there will be no data selling and advertisements on the platform, even in the future.

John admits the traffic surge came sooner than expected but says cross-functional teams are now working around the clock to improve infrastructure. Optimising for India’s patchy internet conditions also remains a priority. “We’re very conscious of rural and low-bandwidth regions, and are tuning performance for slower networks and lower-end devices,” he says.

On interoperability, John said that Arattai is exploring an approach inspired by UPI’s open model. “There should be no monopoly by any player,” he argues. APIs for third-party integration are already in the works, and openness, he believes, will drive adoption in the long run.

Even Sridhar Vembu, founder and former CEO of Zoho, said in an X post that the company has initiated discussions with iSPIRT, a non profit think tank which helped in UPI ideation, to standardise and publish the messaging protocols. 

This echoes what Hike’s Mittal proposed in August, an ONDC-style framework for messaging. Under such a model, Mittal had proposed that any app offering messaging in India would be required to be on the network, turning messaging from a closed product into an open protocol, much like email. Developers could then build applications on top of this network and tap into the network from day one.

The idea of openness is appealing, but history shows that most closed platforms resist interoperability unless regulators step in. For Arattai, building APIs is one challenge; getting WhatsApp or Signal to actually connect is another. Without some external push, openness may end up more as a principle than a practical advantage.

Monetisation, on the other hand, is not on the table for now. “Advertising will never be part of Arattai,” John told Inc42. However, over time, premium tiers or business-oriented features may emerge, he said.

Again, this is a double-edged sword. By not chasing ad money, Arattai positions itself as more privacy-friendly. But if monetisation eventually comes via enterprise bundles or premium layers, it risks drifting into yet another tool for Zoho’s business customers rather than a mass-market WhatsApp rival.

As for milestones, John frames the next two years around product maturity, rural penetration, and international expansion.

The Challenge For India’s WhatsApp Alternative

Like we mentioned before, India has seen several attempts to create homegrown messaging apps as alternatives to global giants like Telegram or WhatsApp, but history suggests that national pride alone does not guarantee success. Hike Messenger combined messaging with social features like stickers, timelines, and mobile payments, reaching over 100 Mn users. Yet it shut down in 2021 and eventually closed entirely in 2025. 

JioChat offered messaging, video calls, and Indian language stickers, but mostly stayed within the Jio ecosystem. Government-backed Sandes focused on secure communication but failed to attract mainstream users. Even niche apps like Troop Messenger or Indian Messenger, despite privacy-focused designs, never gained significant traction.

Arattai now faces the same uphill battle, even if it has Zoho’s huge resources at its disposal. 

The key question here: why would a user switch from WhatsApp or Telegram to use Arattai as their primary app? Especially when it requires hundreds of your friends and your family to switch. 

Some of the features that Arattai is talking about for the future are ones that users already take for granted on the incumbents.

Which is why network effects will remain the biggest hurdle. 

Even if users download the app out of patriotism or curiosity, will their contacts follow? 

If users do not see immediate, tangible benefits beyond the app being Indian, what will keep them coming back after the initial excitement fades? 

Will groups migrate, or will Arattai remain a side app used only sporadically and will Zoho be able to sustain the app if it enjoys only minor engagement? 

These and other questions about Arattai still don’t have an answer, but for now Zoho would want to make the most of the spotlight. 

Edited By Nikhil Subramaniam