‘Being a dedicated engineer is like being a Rishi': Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu on Arattai

Sridhar Vembu, founder, Zoho

Zoho’s Arattai has emerged on the scene as just another messaging app, but founder Sridhar Vembu says it stands on the shoulders of years of in-house innovation. In a post on social media platform X, Vembu revealed that Arattai is built entirely on Zoho’s proprietary frameworks — systems that have quietly evolved for over two decades.

Vembu, who recently moved full-time into R&D, said more innovations will follow. Praising the Arattai team for years of dedication, he likened the focus of true engineers to that of a Rishi — disciplined, introspective, and immune to distractions.  “All of you have worked hard for over five years without expecting that the product would ever take off,” he told his team. He further advised on what the mindset should be, “Allow neither praise nor criticism nor fame to distract you, resolutely stay the course."

At the core is Zoho’s messaging and AV framework, which Vembu described as the “real-time workhorse” behind the app’s crisp, low-latency calls and fast connections. The same framework, perfected over 15 years, also powers other Zoho communication tools. Complementing it is a distributed framework that handles load balancing, fault tolerance, performance, and security — the invisible architecture ensuring Zoho’s reliability.

“These frameworks are the backbone of Zoho,” Vembu said, adding that multiple teams continuously improve them and lend support to the Arattai project.

Arattai climbed to the top of Apple’s App Store and is nearing the top 100 on Google Play, after previously ranking outside the top 500, reflecting renewed consumer interest.

Arattai, a WhatsApp rival launched by Indian software giant Zoho in 2021, is witnessing renewed interest among consumers in the country.