‘Made in India’ Arattai will be new WhatsApp? ZOHO Founder Sridhar Vembu hints at major revamp for messaging app | ET NOW Exclusive

Zoho Corporation 's homegrown messaging app, Arattai— meaning ‘casual chat’ or ‘banter’ in Tamil language —is undergoing a rapid evolution as it gains traction as a strong, privacy-focused alternative to global giants like WhatsApp. Driven by a vision of Atma Nirbhar Bharat, the app's roadmap is heavily focused on user-requested features, core security enhancements, and deep integration with the broader Zoho ecosystem.

In an exclusive interview with Ayesha Faridi, Executive Editor - ET NOW & ET NOW Swadesh, Zoho's founder, Sridhar Vembu , highlighted the app’s progress and forthcoming updates, emphasizing the company's commitment to building a world-class, privacy-first product from India for the world.

On being asked about the inspiration behind Arattai, Zoho's messaging app, being seen as a WhatsApp alternative and a ‘Swadeshi’ solution with features to counter payment threats, Vembu said Arattai stems from the need to have technology made in India.

He emphasized the need for technologies made in India to counter potential threats. The Zoho founder stated he felt long ago that the current global trading system is unsustainable due to global imbalance and mounting debt. He further highlighted the importance of building technology foundations for self-reliance.

“It comes from the long felt need that we must have all of this technology made in India and there's a reason for that. Today, technology is being weaponized against us right and the only way to stop that is not necessarily to be completely self-reliant in every technology self-sufficient in every technology but be self-reliant where we can trade on equal terms. But, we have an equal exchange of value. Or to put it in cruder terms, if you threaten us with some technology, we can threaten you with something similar. I think that is the global approach today. We need technologies in India made in India. That is the goal with which we built or from the beginning. We knew that all of this will arise someday,” he said.

“And because I felt long time ago that the current global trading system is unsustainable the way it was heading, global imbalances, mounting debt, it was going to come to a flash point at some point and we need to be self-reliant in order to have our own technology foundations and that's why it was built and it is gratifying to see this moment,” Vembu further stated.

“But, we still have a long way to go. We are working very hard this week and next week you will see more updates. We are committed to staying the course, committed to building world-class products from India,” he added.

Arattai: Key updates, feature roadmap

The Zoho founder also revealed that Arattai team is in a period of intense development, with updates rolling out every week. Vembu indicated that users can expect significant, highly requested features to be implemented over the next few months.

Vembu revealed that the most critical and immediate feature addition is End-to-End Encryption (E2EE) for text chats, which is currently in active testing.

Addressing user requests for greater flexibility, particularly from professionals, multi-account support (e.g., one for personal use and one for business) is actively being developed, Vembu said.

This feature aims to make Arattai a more seamless and versatile platform for both individual and professional communication.

“We are now making updates every week and every week you will see small things roll in and sometimes they build up over time and there is stuff that's in the app that's not yet exposed. Then we make announcements. We will turn it on after like sufficient testing has happened with small groups. So, we are doing those things and all of the things that you asked about multi-account support, all of that are coming. We are in active development and over the next two to three months you will see a lot of them rolling. Starting with of course the big one the end to end encryption that is in testing already and that should happen within the next two to three weeks tops, Vembu stated.

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