By Erick “Eh why da one more messaging app?”
“Because it’s called Arattai daaaaaaa…”
The above is an excerpt from an actual conversation between me and my best friend, when I downloaded Arattai and asked him to download it too. No, he didn’t install Arattai, but that’s okay, for now.
If you missed the news, Zoho launched a new instant messaging app called Arattai (the word means “chat” in Tamil). This is shortly after the Indian Government announced that Microsoft Office suite is being replaced with Zoho’s Office suite in the Indian Railways, with other departments possibly to follow.
This itself was shortly after a few announcements from the US Government which were clearly made to try and bully India to bend to their unfair trade policies.
Maybe that’s the first reason I downloaded Arattai right away – patriotic feelings.
But there are a few other reasons I’ve listed below. This is not to say that everyone must uninstall WhatsApp and use Arattai right away, this is just an opinion piece.
Early bird but not early adopter: Zoho itself has said that more features will be added and it will take time, and is in fact asking for feedback from the public.
Data sharing concerns: WhatsApp is end to end encrypted, a claim which I have always doubted. WhatsApp chats may be used in a court of law. And whatever is encrypted can be decrypted. Between Meta and the Indian Government, I’m more willing to share my data with the latter.
Closer to home: it’s only a matter of time before Indian publications and Government bodies use the homegrown app for broadcast messages and even for customer care.
Subscription fee? There’s a chance that a few months down the line, Arattai might start charging a fee from new users to manage its server costs.
Right now, admittedly, there are very few people on Arattai. But that’s okay, if any one of my contacts join they will see me there.