Overview
- Downloads and daily sign-ups jumped about 100x in late September, propelled by endorsements from Union ministers and high-profile supporters, pushing Arattai to the top of app-store social charts.
- Zoho says the surge exposed onboarding glitches such as delayed OTPs and slow contact syncing, and it is adding servers on an emergency basis to prepare for further spikes.
- Sridhar Vembu reiterated that Arattai data for Indian users is hosted domestically on Zoho-owned hardware in centres across Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai, with a new facility planned in Odisha.
- End-to-end encryption is live for calls while chat encryption is still in development, underscoring a key security gap compared with WhatsApp’s fully E2EE messaging.
- Vembu says Zoho has opened talks with iSpirt to publish interoperable messaging protocols inspired by UPI, as analysts warn that overcoming network effects and improving retention will determine long-term traction.