Arattai Messenger: India’s swadeshi WhatsApp alternative gets 100x surge in traffic; all you need to know

Earlier this month, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, in an effort to push 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' initiative encouraged citizens use Indian platforms and switch to Zoho's productivity tools to create documents, spreadsheets, and visual presentations.

Now, Union Minister of Education, Dharmendra Pradhan, is promoting Zoho's swadeshi Arattai Messenger app for communication.

Arattai (meaning chat in Tamil), is an all-in-one messenger app. Users can send texts and voice notes, share photos, documents and even make audio/video calls or post stories similar to Meta's WhatsApp platform.

Users can also schedule and participate in meetings. The app requires a mobile number to register and use the service.

And, most importantly, all the calls and messages exchanged between individuals on Arattai Messenger are end-to-end encrypted. It means there is no way it can be intercepted by any private spy mercenaries, government-backed espionage, or even by the Zoho platform.

Since Pradhan's promotion on social media platforms, Arattai, which was launched way back in 2021, has received tremendous response from the public.

Zoho's app has become one of the most downloaded apps on major platforms.

"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," Sridhar Vembu, founder and chief scientist, Zoho.

Vembu noted that the company planned for a big relaunch of Arratai with new features in November, but thanks to the central government ministers' push for indigenous apps, Zoho platforms are receiving a massive number of requests for downloads.

"We had planned on a big release by November, with a lot of the features you expect, a huge capacity addition and a marketing push. And then it suddenly went vertical! We have a lot more planned for Arattai. Please give us some time. Thank you for your patience and support! Jai Hind," said Vembu.

The Zoho Arattai Messenger app is available for multiple platforms (here), including Windows PCs, Linux computers, Mac devices, Android phones and tablets, iPads, and iPhones.

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