Overview

• Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu said daily sign-ups jumped from about 3,000 to 350,000 in three days, with teams adding servers and fixing delayed OTPs, contact sync issues, and onboarding lags.
• The homegrown messenger hit No. 1 in India’s app-store rankings following public endorsements from Union ministers promoting a Swadeshi push.
• Arattai offers one-to-one and group chats, voice and video calls, stories, channels, and multi-device support across mobile, desktop, and Android TV.
• Zoho emphasizes privacy and says it does not monetize personal data, with end-to-end encryption active for calls and chat encryption still in development.
• Analysts note WhatsApp’s entrenched user base and the absence of end-to-end chat encryption as key hurdles for Arattai to convert downloads into sustained daily use.