Indian messaging application that wants to tackle WhatsApp

Can a messaging application made in India compete with the WhatsApp giant?

In recent weeks, Austtai, developed by the Indian technological society Zoho, has become a viral sensation in the country. The company claims to have recorded seven million downloads in “seven days last week”, without specifying the dates. According to the sales company Sensor Tower, Austtai downloads were less than 10,000 in August.

Arattai, which means joke in the Tamil language, experienced a smooth launch in 2021, but few people had heard of it. The sudden rise in its popularity is linked to the efforts of the federal government in favor of autonomy, while India faces the impact of American customs duties on its products.

This is a message that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ministers have repeated in recent weeks: manufacturing in India and spending in India.

Federal Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said it a fortnight ago when he published an article on Arattai on X, urging people to use “applications made in India (to stay) connected”. Since then, several other ministers and business leaders have also published articles on Arattai.

Society says that government’s pressure “has definitively contributed to the sudden increase in Austtai downloads”.

“In just three days, we have seen the daily registrations go from 3,000 to 350,000. In terms of active users of our user base, we have noticed a multiplication by 100, and this continuous number of increasing,” Zoho CEO, BBC, adding, adding that it also shows that users are “enthusiastic by a local product that can meet all their unique needs and requirements”.

The company has not provided details on its active users, but experts say they are still far from the 500 million monthly active users that Meta’s WhatsApp for India.

India is the largest WhatsApp market and the application is almost a lifestyle in the country, people using it for everything, from the sending of mass wishes to the management of their business.

ARATTAI has features similar to WhatsApp and allows users to send messages and make voice and video calls. The two applications also offer a set of professional tools and, just like WhatsApp, Austtai says that it is designed to function properly on low -end phones and even slow internet speeds.

Many users have praised Arattai on social networks, some saying that they liked its interface and its design, while others believed that it corresponded to WhatsApp in terms of conviviality. Many were also proud of the fact that it was an application made in India and encouraged others to download it.

ARATTAI is not the first Indian application to dream of replacing its major international rivals. In the past, applications made in India such as Koo and Moj had been presented respectively as replacement for X and Tiktok (after the Indian government prohibited the Chinese application in 2020), but they have never really taken off after their initial success. Even Sharechat, formerly presented as the great rival of Whatsapp, tempered his ambitions.

The writer and technological analyst based in Delhi, Prasanto K Roy, says that it will be difficult for Austtai to unravel the vast base of WhatsApp users, especially since the platform belonging to Meta hosts a large number of companies and government services on the platform.

Austtai’s success will depend on its ability not only to attract new users, but also to retain them, he says, which cannot be motivated only by a nationalist feeling.

“The product must be good, but even in this case, it is unlikely that it can replace an application that has billions of users worldwide,” adds Mr. Roy.

Some experts have also expressed their concerns about data confidentiality on Arattai. Although the application offers end -to -end encryption (E2EE) of video and vocal calls, it does not currently extend this functionality to messages.

“The government wishes to establish a traceability of messages citing security problems and this can be done easily without end -to -end encryption,” explains Shashidhar Kj, editor -in -chief of Medianama, a web portal that reports on technological policy in India. But that endangers people’s privacy, he adds.

Arattai claims to actively work on the deployment of end -to -end encryption for text messages.

“We initially planned to launch this application after the E2EE, which would have taken place in a few months,” said Man Vembu. “However, the deadlines have been postponed and we try to provide certain critical features and infrastructure medium as quickly as possible.”

WhatsApp offers end -to -end encryption of messages and calls but, depending on his policy, he can share metadata – such as newspaper newspapers – with governments in legally valid circumstances.

Indian Internet laws require social media platforms to share user data with the federal government in certain circumstances, but obtaining this data from international companies is difficult and takes time.

World giants such as Meta and X also have the legal and financial support necessary to oppose the demands or government rules that they deem unjust.

In 2021 WhatsApp continued India in court for new government’s digital rules aimed at regulating content on social networks and streaming platforms, saying that they violated the protections of WhatsApp’s privacy. X has also launched legal proceedings against the powers of the Indian government to block or delete content.

Thus, experts wonder if Arattai, manufactured in India, would be able to withstand the government’s requests that could endanger the right to user privacy?

Rahul Matthan, specializing in technology law, says that as long as there is no more clarity on Austtai’s confidentiality architecture and Zoho’s position on the sharing of the content generated by users with the government, many people may not feel comfortable using it.

Mr. Roy says that it is possible that Zoho feels herself liable to the government, especially since the federal ministers have made the application known. In addition, he adds, it may not be easy for an Indian start-up to resist strongly when asked to comply with the laws and demands of the country’s police.

When asked what Dratai would do if she received such requests, Mani Vombu replies that the company “hopes that its users retain total control over their data while conforming to the country’s rules and regulations in terms of information technology”.

“Once complete encryption from start to finish, even we will no longer have access to the content of user conversations. We will be transparent with our users concerning all legal obligations,” he said.

Experience suggests that the chances are against Indian applications, especially when the giants creating habits like WhatsApp and Facebook dominate. It remains to be seen whether Arattai can break through – or will disappear like so many others before – remains to be seen.

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