Arattai’s Rise in the App Store
Chennai-based Zoho’s instant messaging application, Arattai, has recently experienced a remarkable resurgence, catapulting to the top of Apple’s App Store rankings in the social media category within India. Originally launched in 2021, Arattai, which translates to “casual chat” in Tamil, has gained newfound popularity thanks to endorsements from prominent government officials.
The app’s ascent was notably propelled by union minister Dharmendra Pradhan and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who publicly advocated for its adoption. Pradhan highlighted the app’s attributes as a “free, easy-to-use, secure, and safe” platform, aligning it with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swadeshi initiative aimed at promoting Indian-made digital products.
Vaishnaw further demonstrated his commitment to the Swadeshi movement during a Union Cabinet briefing, opting to use Zoho Show instead of Microsoft PowerPoint for his presentation. He announced his personal transition to Zoho’s office suite on X, stating, “I am moving to Zoho, our own Swadeshi platform for documents, spreadsheets & presentations.”
Zoho’s founder, Sridhar Vembu, expressed gratitude for the ministerial endorsements, describing them as a significant morale boost for the engineers who have dedicated over two decades to developing the company’s product suite. Vembu emphasized the company’s patient engineering approach, which focuses on creating a product that functions seamlessly on low-end phones and in areas with limited bandwidth. “We test down to 8 kilobits/sec,” he noted, while also highlighting the importance of outstanding privacy and security, along with user-friendliness.
Features of Arattai
Arattai boasts a range of messaging capabilities akin to those of WhatsApp, including:
- Text messaging
- Voice and video calls
- Media sharing
- Group chats for up to 1,000 members
- Stories and broadcast channels
The app was specifically designed to cater to users with low-end devices and those in areas with poor connectivity, addressing accessibility concerns prevalent in rural India. Its launch coincided with a period when WhatsApp faced a significant user exodus due to controversial updates to its privacy policy, which led many users to explore alternatives like Signal and Telegram.
While Arattai initially attracted hundreds of new users shortly after its launch, it currently faces challenges regarding security. Although the app provides end-to-end encryption for voice and video calls, text messages do not yet meet the same encryption standards. This stands in contrast to WhatsApp, which offers comprehensive end-to-end encryption for all forms of communication. Zoho has acknowledged this limitation, assuring users that “end-to-end encryption for chats is under development and coming soon.”
Challenges Ahead
Despite its recent success, Arattai is up against formidable competition from WhatsApp, which boasts over 500 million users in India alone. The sudden influx of new users has placed unexpected strain on Arattai’s infrastructure, leading to reports of delays and issues with one-time passwords (OTPs), contact synchronization, and call functionality. In a recent post on X, the company addressed these concerns, stating, “Dear Arattai users, some of you may experience OTP delays/failures, slower contact sync, or call issues due to unexpected load on our servers. We’re expanding our infrastructure and should be back to normal in a couple of days. Thanks for your patience & support!”
