India, WhatsApp’s largest market, has long been dominated by the messaging giant, which has become an integral part of daily life. However, a new contender, Arattai, developed by Indian tech company Zoho, is making waves. Over the past few weeks, Arattai has seen a meteoric rise in popularity, with seven million downloads in just seven days, according to Zoho. This surge is largely attributed to the Indian government’s push for self-reliance, a message echoed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ministers, who have encouraged the use of homegrown apps. Federal minister Dharmendra Pradhan recently urged citizens to use Arattai on social media, further boosting its visibility. Zoho CEO Mani Vembu reported that daily sign-ups skyrocketed from 3,000 to 350,000 in just three days, with active users increasing 100-fold. Despite this growth, Arattai still lags behind WhatsApp, which boasts 500 million monthly active users in India. Arattai offers features similar to WhatsApp, including messaging, voice, and video calls, and is designed to function smoothly on low-end devices and slow internet connections. Users have praised its interface and design, with many expressing pride in supporting an Indian-made app. However, experts remain skeptical about Arattai’s ability to dethrone WhatsApp, citing the latter’s entrenched user base and extensive integration with businesses and government services. Additionally, concerns have been raised about Arattai’s data privacy policies. While the app offers end-to-end encryption for calls, it does not yet extend this feature to messages, raising questions about user privacy. Zoho has stated that it is working to implement full end-to-end encryption for text messages. The company has also emphasized its commitment to complying with India’s IT regulations while ensuring user control over data. Historically, Indian apps like Koo and Moj have struggled to sustain initial success against global giants. Whether Arattai can overcome these challenges and carve out a lasting presence in India’s competitive tech landscape remains uncertain.