Arattai Trend Analytics

Arattai Messenger by Zoho: The Fastest-Growing Made-in-India Messaging App—2025 Analytics Roundup

1. Explosive User Growth & Virality

• In October 2025, Arattai Messenger experienced a staggering growth surge, jumping from ~2.6 million installs to over 10 million on Google Play within one week, with daily sign-ups peaking at 350,000 and even hitting 2 million in a single day.

• This virality was powered by government endorsements, especially under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliance) campaign, and amplified across social media by Union Ministers and top entrepreneurs.

• Monthly Active Users (MAUs) exceeded 1 million, a notable achievement for a domestic challenger, but still a fraction of WhatsApp’s massive Indian user base.

• The demand drove Arattai to #1 on both Google Play and the Apple App Store social networking charts in India.

2. Standout Features & Differentiators

• Privacy First: No ads, no tracking, strict Indian data residency.

• Core Messaging: Encrypted voice and video calls, group chats up to 1,000 members, multimedia sharing, stories, file sharing up to 2GB, and chat import from WhatsApp.

• Innovations:

  • Meetings Tab enables Zoom-like video conferencing.
  • Mentions Tab organizes messages where a user is tagged.
  • Pocket personal cloud for notes and media.
  • Android TV support—unique among rivals.
  • Optimization for low-end devices and bandwidth.

3. Security and Platform Gaps

• End-to-end encryption (E2EE) for calls is live, but E2EE for text messages is a “top priority” and still in development, sparking critical privacy debates.

• Zoho is scaling infrastructure aggressively to address server strain and stability during the growth spike.

4. Product Updates & Ambitions

• Major launch planned for November 2025, with new features and AI-powered enhancements (Zoho Zia) for auto-message flagging and smart replies in development.

• Zoho Pay integration and plans for UPI payments set to bring Arattai in line with WhatsApp’s financial features.

• Super-app ambitions: Enabling third-party integration similar to WeChat is being considered.

• Focused on future enterprise integration with other Zoho products and deeper value-add services.

5. Market Position & Competitive Analysis

• India First: Dominant growth and presence in India, but negligible outside—driven by government narrative and tech sovereignty movement.

• Competitive Matrix: Arattai offers privacy, India-specific innovations, and domestic data storage, while WhatsApp leads on scale and default E2EE.

• Challenges: Retention after viral boom, full encryption roll-out, scaling for sustained usage, and building network effect remain hurdles.

6. Newsworthy Trends

• Arattai’s meteoric rise reflects India’s digital sovereignty ambitions, growing public demand for privacy, and government preference for local tech solutions.

• WhatsApp and Telegram are expected to respond rapidly with India-tailored features; regulatory activity is increasing around official communications.

• Zoho’s founder publicized the promise to roll out E2EE and move user data storage onto devices for greater privacy.

7. Summary Outlook

• Arattai leads the wave of indigenous apps, offering solid privacy, fast-paced innovation, and direct alignment with India's tech policy priorities.

• Sustainability depends on overcoming network effect barriers, retaining users long-term, achieving feature parity—especially encryption—and integrating payments and enterprise tools.

• If successful, Arattai’s story will be a model for “Digital India” self-reliance and privacy-driven consumer technology.