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News India Live, Digital Desk: Till a few weeks ago, a ‘Made in India’ messaging app took the internet by storm. ‘Arattai’, which means ‘gossip’ in Tamil, was on the lips of every Indian and within no time it became the number 1 app on the Google Play Store. Riding on the spirit of ‘self-reliant India’, this app had left behind even a giant like WhatsApp. But it is said that as difficult as it is to reach the heights, it is more difficult to stay there. Something similar happened with ‘Aratai’. The app which was at the peak of popularity till a few days ago, has today slipped to the seventh position in the communication category of Google Play Store. And meanwhile, WhatsApp, the old king of the messaging world, has again strengthened its position and occupied the third position. Came, shadow and… landed. Chennai’s well-known tech company Zoho Corporation had launched ‘Aaratai’ in 2021. Its objective was to reduce the dominance of foreign apps and to give Indians a safe, simple and indigenous option. In early October 2025, when there was talk of promoting ‘Made in India’ products, the fortunes of this app brightened. There was such a flood of downloads that even its servers started responding. At one point, its daily sign-ups had increased from 3,000 to 3.5 lakh. Why did the shine of ‘Aratai’ fade? As fast as its popularity graph went up, it is coming down just as fast. Many big reasons are believed to be behind this: Unfulfilled promise of encryption: Security and privacy are the biggest priorities for today’s users. Voice and video calls in ‘Aratai’ are end-to-end encrypted, but text messages (chats) lack this security. This has been the biggest complaint of new users, because apps like WhatsApp have been providing this feature for years. Lack of features and network: WhatsApp has become not just a messaging app, but a complete ecosystem, which includes many features like payments, business chat and status. It proved very difficult for ‘Aratai’ to compete with such a large and established network. Controversies caused damage: Some statements made by the app’s CEO regarding data access and compliance with government rules also created doubts in the minds of users about privacy, which harmed the app’s image. Talking about the latest ranking, Snapchat is at the first place among communication apps on Google Play Store, second is occupied by Truecaller and third is occupied by WhatsApp Messenger. At the same time, ‘Aratai’ has slipped to the seventh position. This journey of ‘Aratai’ shows that to make any app successful, the feeling of nationalism alone is not enough, but it will also have to continuously innovate, win the trust of the users and provide facilities and security at par with the global giants.