I tried the Arattai app on iPhone: Is it worth the hype? 

If you keep up with internet trends, there is no way you would have missed the Arattai hype in the current market. 

Zoho’s messenger tool Arattai has recently seen a 100x surge in daily sign-ups. From 3,000/day to 3,50,000/day within three days, the ‘Made in India’ Arattai app has a chokehold over the tech scene at present. 

Arattai means ‘casual chat’ in Tamil. Launched over four years ago, the sudden surge in user adoption has attracted varied responses from netizens. 

While Arattai claims to be a privacy-first, spyware-free alternative to its rivals, many developers have cautioned that the app will have to overcome significant hurdles in reliability, scalability and end-to-end encryption if it is to really challenge global giants like WhatsApp.

When any software or app suddenly rises to fame, the main question is whether it brings something genuinely unique to the table or if its popularity is driven largely by aggressive promotion and marketing.

Amid the hype, I decided to test the app myself. 

Arattai has an in-built online meeting feature, like Google Meet. This is important, as its all-inclusive communication under one platform becomes a good reason to try the app, especially for office teams and groups.

Notably, it includes an ‘Apply branding to all meetings’ feature, which allows you to show your brand with custom logos and themes in the meetings, creating a professional and unique look. I’ve not found this feature in Arattai’s rivals, like WhatsApp. 

One of the other impressive features of the app, considering security and tech advancements, is that you can hide your IP address in calls. Users can protect their IP address by allowing Arattai to relay all calls through its server to mask the address. 

It also offers screen security, which will prevent Arattai from appearing in the app switcher and help you maintain your privacy. 

Further, features like image compression and the option to turn off auto-downloads for large files can help users optimise storage. This is appealing to me, as an iPhone user who always struggles with phone storage.  

Many users also rely on personal storage space to save important documents and make notes for the future. I, for one, use this feature a lot to message things I’m prone to forgetting later. Arattai has this as well, a personal space called ‘Pocket’, where you can text yourself and save things for later. 

Other features like broadcasts and channels can help you carry out your business conversations over the app, and the meeting service has many features like muting participants, scheduling meetings in advance, quick new meetings, password protection, agenda adding, screen sharing and recording, which make Arattai a strong contender in the messaging field. 

Linking devices is also an important feature, which allows you to access your messages and talk to people through your laptop or even TV. Arattai also offers device linking with a QR code. 

Some features for convenience, like asking you to confirm before leaving a meeting and starting a meeting with video and audio turned off, are particularly helpful for people who often approach digital platforms casually. 

I personally like the read receipts feature as well, which allows me to deal with messages on my own time and space. 

Additionally, there’s a separate space to see the messages in which you’re tagged, which helps you stay on top of important messages. 

One of the more playful features is that you can set a caller tune and sound for your notifications, which allows you to use humorous sounds for messages and surprise people around you. 

Arattai’s hype

Many of its features are similar to what other messaging apps like WhatsApp offer, but I believe that the primary appeal of this app is that it’s homegrown. 

Several government officials, including Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, have also claimed that they’ve switched to the app, along with their teams, for work purposes. 

This homegrown, or ‘Swadeshi’, feel of this app has motivated many users to try it out. 

One user on Reddit wrote, “If gen z doesn't adopt it it will die.” This speaks volumes about how much of an impact Gen Z has on the adoption of new tech software. 

Many also suggest that the name of the app, Arattai, isn’t relevant or catchy enough to survive in the market. Users add that the name is difficult to pronounce. 

Some even mentioned the formerly famous messaging app, Hike, which was on its way to compete with existing giants in the market, but its hype faded. Apparently, they say that the unappealing name was behind its downfall. 

On the other hand, many say that difficult names like Xiaomi and ChatGPT also caught on gradually, so one shouldn’t judge this quickly. 

Features of Arattai

Here are the key features of the app:

Arattai’s rise shows there is a growing demand for homegrown digital alternatives in the country’s tech ecosystem. 

It will now be interesting to see whether it can sustain this momentum and grow it to the next level. One thing can be said for sure: It will need much more than the viral hype to build reliability and compete with global giants in this space.