The indigenous messaging application, Arattai Messenger, is experiencing an extraordinary surge in popularity. In just three days, the app has seen an astounding 100-fold increase in user traffic. The number of daily sign-ups has risen from 3,000 to 350,000. Developed by Zoho, the application has rapidly become the top-ranked app in the app store, posing a considerable challenge to WhatsApp. Sridhar Vembu, co-founder of Zoho, announced the app’s impressive growth on X. Vembu indicated that the company is aggressively building infrastructure to manage potential peak surges and accommodate the growing user base. The team is actively engaged in refining the code to enhance user experience and quickly respond to any issues that arise. The initial plan for a major release in November, which included numerous new features, increased capacity, and an extensive marketing campaign, has been accelerated due to the sudden spike in user adoption. Arattai is a messaging app designed to rival WhatsApp. The app offers various features, including text messaging, voice notes, and sharing of images and videos, in addition to group chats and broadcast channels. Launched in 2021 by Zoho Corporation, the app’s popularity has skyrocketed. A key appeal is its commitment to privacy and its promise not to monetize user data. Arattai provides the basic functions of WhatsApp, such as sending and receiving texts, media and file sharing, secure audio and video calling, multi-device support, and Android TV integration. The rise in Arattai’s popularity was influenced by the call for indigenous digital solutions. This led to increased social media discussions and users referring to it as a ‘WhatsApp Killer’. The rapid growth has put pressure on server capacity. The company is working on server stabilization. Arattai currently provides encrypted calls, but it has yet to implement end-to-end encryption for chats. Arattai faces a significant hurdle in competing with WhatsApp, which has a vast user base in India.
