Last week, Zoho’s messaging app Arattai became the talk of the town after a wave of endorsements from senior Union ministers, including Ashwini Vaishnaw, Piyush Goyal, and Dharmendra Pradhan, who joined the platform. Their participation gave the app massive visibility and firmly positioned it within Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swadeshi push, promoting Arattai as a homegrown alternative to WhatsApp.
Launched in 2021, Arattai, which means ‘casual chat’ in Tamil, witnessed a meteoric rise from a modest base of 3,000 users to 3.5 lakh downloads within days. According to media reports, the app climbed to the number 1 position, outranking even ChatGPT and Gemini on the PlayStore and App Store. The app offers end-to-end encryption, group calling, and support for over 20 Indian and international languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, and Arabic. Users can share files up to 2 GB and create groups with 1,000 members.
Its biggest draw, however, lies in its promise - a Made-in-India, spyware-free alternative to the global giants dominating our digital lives. Interestingly, Arattai also offers a feature that WhatsApp doesn’t: a dedicated Android TV app, available for download via the Play Store.
India’s record with homegrown digital platforms has been a mixed bag, raising questions about whether Arattai can sustain this momentum. Take Hike Messenger, for instance, launched in 2012 as a Made-in-India rival to WhatsApp. It once gained massive traction with features like stickers, local languages, hidden chats, and offline messaging. Yet, shifting user behavior, regulatory hurdles, and the sheer network effect of larger global platforms led to its decline before it officially shut down in January 2021.
A similar fate met Koo, India’s answer to X (formerly Twitter). Despite claiming 10 million monthly users, the platform eventually shut down after struggling to raise funds.
So, can Arattai avoid the fate of its predecessors and build a sustainable digital ecosystem? That’s the question industry experts are asking. Prashant Puri, CEO and Co-founder, Adlift believes that the ‘Made-in-India’ positioning has struck a strong emotional chord, further amplified by government voices advocating its adoption.
He adds that the app’s emphasis on privacy and its lightweight design optimised for slower networks can enhance its appeal beyond metro markets. However, he notes that the early momentum appears to be driven more by sentiment than by sustained user behaviour.
Dr. Kushal Sanghvi, Chief Revenue Officer, iCubesWire, says the comparison with Koo is quite apt. “I’ve been following Koo closely and even know the founding team. They started well, differentiating themselves, offering contextual and relevant content, and gaining solid traction. But like many Indian tech companies, they eventually ran out of funds. It wasn’t a lack of ambition to scale like Twitter (now X) but rather a lack of financial muscle that led to their early decline.
He adds that in contrast, Zoho is a large, financially robust organisation, one of India’s most successful SaaS companies. Arattai, as a new venture under its umbrella, is naturally attracting attention and early fandom.
As Meta offers an interconnected suite of platforms: Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads, its ecosystem has become deeply woven into people’s daily lives. This network effect is precisely what makes competing with WhatsApp so challenging, users’ social circles, businesses, and communities are all anchored within Meta’s ecosystem.
From messaging and social sharing to content consumption and commerce, Meta has built a digital universe that users rarely step out of. In such a tightly integrated environment, the question arises: can Arattai truly break through this dominance?
A media publication recently reported that Zoho’s Founder has stated that Arattai will remain an ad-free platform, with no plans to display advertisements to its users. In contrast, Meta has recently introduced ads in WhatsApp Status, allowing brands to insert promotions between full-screen status updates. Moreover, Zoho has clarified that Arattai does not monetise or share users’ personal data, reinforcing its privacy-first positioning. On the other hand, WhatsApp, owned by Meta, has long faced backlash over its data-sharing practices, particularly after the controversial privacy policy update in 2021.
This ad-free and privacy-first positioning could become Arattai’s most powerful marketing narrative, especially in an age where digital trust is eroding.
But with its sudden surge in popularity, Arattai is now under pressure. Its infrastructure appears to be struggling to keep up with the flood of new users, with several reports of OTP delays, contact syncing issues, and occasional call failures.
Anish Varghese, Fractional CCO at Auburn Digital Solutions, observes that Arattai’s lightweight design could be a key advantage, particularly in regions with weaker network connectivity, enabling users to stay connected even in low-coverage areas.
However, he notes that a full-scale migration across India is unlikely in the near term. With friends, family, and colleagues already entrenched on WhatsApp, convincing users to switch platforms will take time. Until then, Arattai risks remaining just another app installed on people’s phones rather than becoming their primary messaging platform.
Varghese states that one of its strongest selling points is an ad-free experience with assurance that the user won’t be exploited for commercial purposes.
Harish Bijoor, Founder of Harish Bijoor Consults Inc., says that competing with a giant like WhatsApp requires more than just features, such as no data sharing or a lightweight design. While many users may experiment with Arattai, they will continue using WhatsApp, making the real challenge for Zoho converting these casual users into loyalists who eventually shift their entire contact base to Arattai.
He adds that Arattai also needs a campaign emphasising its identity as ‘more Indian’ and ‘more local’. While the name naturally resonates with Tamil-speaking users in India and the global Tamil diaspora, it may feel unfamiliar to others. The brand, therefore, must communicate its Indianness in a broader, relatable way to appeal to a wider audience.
Sanghvi also emphasises that for Arattai to sustain its growth, it must move beyond being merely a patriotic alternative. The app needs a stronger value proposition, such as hyper-localization or community-focused features that make it more relevant and engaging for specific groups, age segments, or diaspora communities.
Puri notes that for Arattai to succeed, the focus must be on retention, ensuring the app is reliable, secure, and consistently valuable in users’ daily lives. It should go beyond simply replicating WhatsApp, offering features that genuinely enhance communication.
“In the long run, trust will be key. If users believe in Arattai’s privacy and reliability, adoption will grow,” he highlights.
Experts also believe that there is a huge opportunity for Arattai if it integrates with UPI and ONDC, so that people can make payments and shop directly through the app.
India has faced several setbacks in creating homegrown alternatives to global platforms, from Koo versus Twitter to Fearless versus PUBG. Arattai’s path to winning users won’t be easy. While patriotism has given it an initial boost, the app must offer something distinct from WhatsApp. Its brand identity should not be framed as a competitor to WhatsApp, but as Arattai itself, a homegrown messaging app built on privacy and trust.
