Arattai Explained: What Is This WhatsApp Rival and Who Developed It - All You Need to Know

For over a decade, India has been developing local challengers to global giants. It's a trend that speaks as much to the blind spots of international brands in reading India's cultural pulse as it does to the government's push for Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India). So, when Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan urged people on Saturday to “switch to India-made apps” and held up Arattai, a homegrown instant messenger, it was hardly surprising that the call to action immediately turned heads.

However, dialling the enthusiasm down a notch, this is not the first time India has seen a promising local rival in the app space. From Twitter rival Koo to TikTok's indigenous counterparts Moj and Josh, and from Facebook rival ShareChat to DrafKings-inspired Dream11, there have been numerous platforms that dared to take on the global leader, but fell short. Even WhatsApp has seen its fair share of clone apps in Hike, Namaste Bharat, and Vibe.

While some of them managed to gain some success in the regional space, it was never enough to threaten the international platform. So, what makes Arattai different? And why should the hype behind the app be considered anything more than the flavour of the season? In short, the answer is Zoho.

What Is Arattai and Who Developed It?

Arattai is the latest instant-messaging app that aims to serve the Indian vernacular audience. Coming out of the house of Zoho, the WhatsApp rival comes with almost all the features of a modern messenger. The platform's website notes that the word “Arattai” means “casual talk” or “chit-chat” in Tamil.

As mentioned above, the app was made by Zoho, the Chennai-based enterprise software company that focuses on cloud-based offerings. Some of the company's popular offerings include Zoho Office Suite (a Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace alternative) and Zoho CRM ( a customer relationship management platform).

Zoho was founded by Sridhar Vembu and Tony Thomas in 1996. Interestingly, the company has never raised outside venture capital funding and remains bootstrapped to date. According to Entrackr, the company posted a revenue of Rs. 9,158.9 crore in FY24, posting a growth of 30 percent compared to FY23.

The company has a track record of building Indian software and platforms and then scaling them to global heights. If there is a reason that Arattai can succeed where Hike and Vibe failed, it is Zoho.

Arattai Features

Coming to the features, users can send messages, photos and videos, and documents to other users and in groups. The app also lets users make audio and video calls, share stories, create channels, and more. Similar to WhatsApp, you can also convert your account into a business account to better serve your users. There is also a web version of the platform, similar to the Meta-owned messenger.

Arattai app interface

Gadgets 360 staff members were able to sign up for the platform (after multiple attempts due to high traffic), and it has a basic interface. There are four tabs at the bottom: Stories, Meetings, Chats, and Calls. Entering each tab shows more options and features. Users can personalise their profile with a name, bio, and a profile picture. Accounts can also be secured by adding usernames.

While the voice and video calls on the app are end-to-end encrypted, currently, the messages are not secure, raising a question about user privacy. However, in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), Vembu acknowledged it and said, “Yes, we have the engineering done, Extensive testing going on.” It is not known when the feature will be rolled out.

Is Arattai Free to Use?

Unlike Zoho's enterprise-focused offerings, Arattai is a free-to-use app that users can download and install from either the Google Play Store on Android or the App Store on iOS. There are no in-app charges at this time, either. Vembu highlighted in a post that in the last three days, new sign-ups went from 3,000 a day to 3,50,000 per day, marking a 100X increase.