Arattai is a Tamil word which means chit-chat, just like WhatsApp which was derived from what's up. The formal launch of Arattai is likely to take place in a few weeks time
The Indian SaaS (Software as a Service) bootstrapped unicorn Zoho is set to launch its own messaging app named Arattai- an alternative to WhatsApp.
Arattai is a Tamil word which means chit-chat, just like WhatsApp which was derived from what's up.
The formal launch of Arattai is likely to take place in a few weeks time.
The app readies itself to come to the market at a time when WhatsApp users across the globe are questioning the app's new privacy policies and are switching to other messaging apps like Signal, Telegram.
Sridhar Vembu, Zoho’s founder, tweeted about the app, which is currently being tested in a ‘friends and family version’.
"Our Arattai team asked me to not talk about our instant messaging app yet but since it is already being talked about, I guess I can talk too," he tweeted.
"This is a friends-and-family trial release. We will do a formal launch in a few weeks. We have a lot more in store. Stay tuned!" the tweet added.
Our Arattai team asked me to not talk about our instant messaging app yet but since it is already being talked about ?, I guess I can talk too.
This is a friends-and-family trial release. We will do a formal launch in a few weeks. We have a lot more in store. Stay tuned!
— Sridhar Vembu (@svembu) January 10, 2021
Arattai is already available on the Google Play Store and it has a rating of 4.6 with over 10,000 installs.
Users who have used it have come up with good reviews and called the app as the “best replacement of WhatsApp”.
It may be mentioned here that right at the beginning of 2021, WhatsApp rolled out a new update which centred around its privacy policy.
In the update, WhatsApp informed that it would now share data with Facebook and further said that users won’t be able to use the messaging app unless they sign up along with the new rules.
The information that WhatsApp shares with other Facebook companies includes:
Meanwhile, apart from playing on with the 'Made in India' card, Zoho’s Arattai also claims to offer a safe card and states that the app won't be sharing data without the user’s consent.
Further, it said that the app focuses on privacy and says, “Customer privacy is our number one priority. Arattai makes sure that your data is private and is accessible only by you!"
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