Zoho Arattai Sees 100x Growth: Will It Challenge WhatsApp in India?

Zoho Arattai, The new messaging application in Tamil meaning casual chat, was developed by Zoho to run on low-end smartphones and low-bandwidth settings. The application enables sharing of text, images, videos and document, voice and video calls, stories and channels that are business orientated. It is lightweight to ensure that modern communication is made accessible to users who are limited either by device specifications or patchy connectivity.

Zoho Arattai traffic surge and urgent scaling

Founder Sridhar Vembu reported an unprecedented traffic jump:

“We have faced a 100x increase in Arattai traffic in 3 days (new sign-ups went vertical from 3K/day to 350K/day). We are adding infrastructure on an emergency basis for another potential 100x peak surge. That is how exponentials work.”

The growth came earlier than a projected November roll out that was to bring in new features, increase capacity and launch a marketing campaign. Zoho engineers have been adding scale to infrastructure and fixing technical problems when they occur.

Core features and product positioning of Zoho Arattai

The priorities of Arattai are:

• Low bandwidth optimization of weak connection or intermittent connection.
• Low weight footprint of low-cost devices.
• Non personal messaging business channels.
• Secure calls are being used, but encrypted messaging is still being developed.

This positioning is one of the factors that distinguish Arattai in underserved areas where resource-intensive apps fare poorly.

Security and privacy posture

Arattai highlights end-to-end encrypted calls, but message-level encryption is not yet available as per reports.

“Although Arattai is gaining popularity and positive reviews, it is still not ready to fully rival WhatsApp, mainly due to the absence of end-to-end encryption for messages.”

The distinction between encrypted calls and non-encrypted messages will shape user trust and adoption, particularly among privacy-focused users.

Arattai has caught the interest of the government. As Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Union Minister of Railways of India, encouraged the expanded usage of Zoho, saying:

“I am moving to Zoho, our own Swadeshi platform for documents, spreadsheets & presentations. I urge all to join PM Shri @narendramodi Ji's call for Swadeshi by adopting indigenous products and services.”

The other official termed it as a free application, simple to use, safe, and secure, and called on the citizens to use it. These pronouncements have both boosted the publicity of Arattai and raised concerns about its credibility and data culture.

What users need to know about Arattai

Free and open: Arattai is free to install, and it does not have any subscription restrictions, which means it can be used by many users.

Day-to-day communication: In addition to messaging, it facilitates media sharing, stories, group chats, channels and voice/video calls.

Multi-device sync: This lets the user connect five devices and auto-synchronises between phones, tablets, and desktops.

Migration restriction: Messages on other platforms cannot be imported yet, but Zoho has further feature development plans.

 These decisions support the trend of inclusivity and low-friction adoption that Arattai has been pursuing in bandwidth-constrained areas.

Will WhatsApp be ousted by Zoho Arattai in India?

There is more than one feature needed to displace an incumbent. WhatsApp reigns supreme with end-to-end encryption, advanced infrastructure and established business presence. The existing strengths of Arattai are low-resource optimisation and underserved device and area targeting. However, it also has its limitations which are no less obvious: scaling is weak when faced with surges, not all features are well-developed yet, and some features are still immature.

Technical and adoption considerations for Zoho Arattai

Scaling during exponential growth: Infrastructure gets added on a reactive basis. The proactive capacity planning, edge networks and solid orchestration will be needed for long-term stability.

Trade-offs in client design: Lightweight clients push load to the servers, raising the costs of backends. It will be vital to compression and efficient protocols

Security vulnerabilities: Call encryption has been implemented, but there is no message end-to-end encryption, which undermines the trust. The multi-device and business channels support with E2EE implementation are complicated.

Retention vs. hype: It will take stability, the clarity of features, and clear security practices to convert 350,000 people daily who sign up into active, long-term users.

Policy and perception: Uptime, transparency and responsible governance of data may also be faster with political support, but increased expectations ensue.

Zoho Arattai has demonstrated tremendous preliminary traction and is filling a true market need in bandwidth- and device-limited markets. Yet to continue to grow, operational resilience, enhanced encryption, and business functions that can match the established WhatsApp ecosystem are needed.

As Sridhar Vembu stated, "We understand the push for Zoho to go public. But let me state the reality: Arattai would very likely not have been built by a public company that faces quarter to quarter financial pressure. It was a "hopelessly foolish" project, and even our employees had expressed scepticism that Arattai would ever gain any traction". 

Read here the detailed post: 

We understand the push for Zoho to go public. But let me state the reality: Arattai would very likely not have been built by a public company that faces quarter to quarter financial pressure. It was a "hopelessly foolish" project, and even our employees had expressed scepticism… https://t.co/vuELimKCv0

— Sridhar Vembu (@svembu) September 28, 2025

That framing puts Arattai as an experiment currently under the stresses of scale, security and adoption.