From barely 10,000 downloads in August to over 10 million last few weeks, Arattai has been one of India's fastest-rising apps. The instant messaging app, created by Chennai-based Zoho Corporation, witnessed a meteoric rise in sign-ups—increase from 3,000 daily to 350,000 daily, and a record two million sign-ups on October 1. Zoho Founder Sridhar Vembu termed the pace as a "100x increase" in traffic.
Arattai, meaning ‘chat’ in Tamil, positions itself as a homegrown alternative to WhatsApp. Its rise coincides with renewed government appeals to “Make in India” and “Spend in India,” as ministers and business leaders urge citizens to support domestic technology.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan approved the app on X, formerly Twitter, late last month as "free, easy-to-use, secure, safe, and 'Made in India'". He said further, "Inspired by PM Narendra Modi's appeal to embrace Swadeshi, I request each one of you to turn towards India-made apps for connecting with friends and relatives."
Downloaded @Arattai today…
With pride. pic.twitter.com/99hp3C0COM
">Anand Mahindra tweeted that he downloaded Arattai “with pride”, later writing, “We’re cheering for you, @svembu.” Prime Minister Modi, though not naming Arattai directly, has consistently highlighted the importance of supporting Indian-made products.
Arattai is not new. Zoho initially rolled it out quietly in 2021. Founded on the firm's corporate communication platform Zoho Cliq, itself a spinoff of Zoho Chat from 2008, the new incarnation represents Zoho's first significant venture out of B2B software and into consumer technology (B2C).
Arattai also has the issue of holding users. Its initial flood recalls Meta's Threads, which acquired more than 100 million users in five days but had difficulties with long-term retention, according to the data by Backlingo. WhatsApp's dominance—more than 500 million downloads in India and over two billion users worldwide—renders switching users difficult.
In contrast to WhatsApp, Arattai provides a no-ads, privacy-centric approach with data being stored only in Indian servers.
Features such as Pocket enable saving messages, links, and media in a personal cloud space, without the hassle of sending oneself a message. It has multi-device support on Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, and Linux, and features in-app video conferencing for professionals—without using a third-part tool.
UPI integration and ONDC-related e-commerce is the next frontier for Arattai, facilitating transactions within the app itself—a move that would challenge WhatsApp's restrained payments implementation. The user response has been enthusiastic, with the app maintaining a 4.8/5 rating on Google Play, hailing its speed, minimal design, and ease of use.
Zoho founder Mani Vembu said that the company is focused on long-term value, rather than short-term trends. " At Zoho, we’ve never built products to chase trends. We build for customer value, long-term benefits, engineering excellence, and self-reliance. Arattai reflects that same philosophy," he tells Forbes India. Zoho continues to stay private and totally bootstrapped, making $1.5 billion in revenue each year as of 2024.
"Swadeshi and self-reliance have been our working philosophies all along. We are proud of indigenous innovation and of enhancing India's economic and digital sovereignty,” Vembu adds.
In an interview with Mint, Vembu admitted that users already have established networks on existing messaging apps, and said his goal is for them to try Arattai alongside these apps; once they experience its value, they are likely to use it consistently.
Tarun Pathak, Counterpoint Research Research Director, opined Arattai is a long-term transition for India's digital landscape. "We have very few indigenous alternatives as we enter an AI era. Security is going to be crucial, and the best way to build digital infrastructure is on a local stack. This is what the government aims to achieve," Pathak said in an interview with PTI.
Challenges do persist. While Arattai supports end-to-end encryption for voice and video calls, text messages are not yet encrypted to the same level. Moreover, building and maintaining a large-scale consumer messaging platform requires deep pockets. Earlier this year, Meta decided to begin monetising Whatsapp, which has remained a high-cost, low-return asset for the tech giant since it was acquired in 2014 for nearly $19 billion.
Swadeshi ‘Mappls’ by MapmyIndia 🇮🇳
Good features…must try! pic.twitter.com/bZOPgvrCxW
">Ashwini Vaishnaw promoted Mappls by MapmyIndia, calling it a “Swadeshi app with good features.”
Recently, Home Minister Amit Shah announced his switch to Zoho mail. “I dedicate this moment to our hard-working engineers who have toiled hard in Zoho for over 20 years. They all stayed in India and worked all these years because they believed. Their faith is vindicated,” Vembu says.
As India’s digital landscape evolves, Arattai’s rapid growth highlights the opportunities and challenges of homegrown innovation. Whether it can translate nationalistic momentum into long-term retention remains to be seen.
First Published: Oct 13, 2025, 18:52
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