Overview
- Arattai’s rollout of message end-to-end encryption has been accelerated from a November target and is now in testing, according to Sridhar and Mani Vembu.
- Zoho says chat cloud storage will be turned off to support device-only encryption, with backups remaining an opt-in option; reporting by Financial Express says the implementation uses the audited Signal protocol.
- Founder Sridhar Vembu reiterated that the company will comply with lawful government requests, saying the app protects private communications but cannot shield “secret rebels” from courts.
- A viral X exchange over whether Zoho staff could access intimate photos prompted Vembu to stress a trust-based model, confirm E2E messaging is coming, and note data is stored on encrypted disks pending the device-only shift.
- Zoho reports a 100x jump in sign-ups—from about 3,000 a day to 350,000—with single-day sign-ups reaching 2 million, and it pledges no ads or tracking while preparing AI features via in-house Zia and planning a formal launch in November.