'We are testing end-to-end encryption this week on Arattai, will be rolled out soon': Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu

Sridhar Vembu

Zoho Corporation has begun internal testing of end-to-end encryption for its messaging app, Arattai, and plans to roll it out in the coming weeks, founder and Chief Scientist Sridhar Vembu said in an interview with Moneycontrol on October 13.

“Yes, that is coming, actually. In fact, it's being tested this week internally. We should roll it out in the next couple of weeks,” Vembu said, adding that the feature had already been developed and was initially planned for a mid-November launch. “We are accelerating the timeline. We are rolling out sooner,” he said.

Vembu noted that the company is simultaneously working on strengthening Arattai’s integrations and use cases to make it a “reliable daily companion.” “We have to integrate with various government services, integrate with banking services. All of that has to happen,” he said.

Watch the full interview here

Vembu’s words come amid rising user curiosity on social media about Arattai’s privacy features, especially after Zoho confirmed that E2EE is already active for voice and video calls.

The move to extend it to text chats by default marks a key milestone in Arattai’s evolution as a secure, India-built alternative to global messaging giants like WhatsApp and Telegram.

Extending the encryption feature to text would bring it closer in line with WhatsApp, which has had default end-to-end encryption across all forms of communication, messages, calls, and group chats, since 2016.

Launched in early 2021, Arattai, which means “chat” in Tamil, was initially developed as a privacy-focused communication tool for both personal and professional use.

The app recently gained renewed momentum after Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw, Dharmendra Pradhan, Nirmala Sitharaman, and Piyush Goyal publicly endorsed Arattai, alongside Zoho’s office suite and MapmyIndia’s Mappls, as indigenous alternatives to Big Tech offerings.

Vembu added that Zoho is seeing steady momentum for Arattai, though growth will likely fluctuate. “I do expect ups and downs in this. I don't expect this to be a smooth shot all the way. There have to be pivotal moments,” Vembu said.

He also acknowledged that Zoho had to speed up its rollout plans as timelines advanced unexpectedly. “We were going to go with all of this about November timeframe, but it accelerated. Now we are scrambling. We are catching up,” he said.

Watch the full interview here