Security blind spot: Zoho Arattai's missing end-to-end encryption for chats

The made-in-India messaging app, Zoho Arattai, has successfully ridden a wave of national interest, reporting a staggering 100x surge in downloads that has momentarily placed it in direct competition with WhatsApp. The app has achieved feature parity with its global rival in most areas, offering everything from audio/video calls to document sharing and channels.

However, a critical security lapse threatens to undermine this rapid ascent: Arattai does not offer end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for its text chats.

The Core Vulnerability

While Zoho has commendably integrated E2EE for its voice and video calls, the same standard has not been applied to the most fundamental part of the application.

The company's public stance focuses on data security, noting that information is stored securely within the country and is not shared. This statement, while adhering to data localization norms, is a vastly different proposition from the absolute guarantee of privacy provided by E2EE.

The absence of E2EE means that messages are not scrambled on the sender's device and decrypted only on the recipient's device. Instead, unencrypted or server-encrypted data remains accessible to the application provider—Zoho—or could be intercepted by sophisticated hackers or government agencies if the app’s central servers are compromised.

In 2025, this is not a minor omission; it’s a fundamental security deficit:

Trust Erosion: Modern users, especially those migrating from WhatsApp, Signal, or iMessage, expect E2EE as a default feature. Its absence immediately raises questions about data privacy and the company's commitment to user security.

Data Exposure: Without E2EE, the entire message database is a target. Any breach of Arattai's servers—or even simple access by internal employees—could expose private conversations.

Competitive Disadvantage: When users compare a homegrown app to a global competitor, a key privacy differentiator like E2EE becomes a deciding factor. Arattai's failure to implement it for chats makes it a fundamentally less secure alternative.

Zoho's messaging app has proven it can attract users, but if it hopes to convert temporary interest into lasting adoption and be taken seriously as a secure communications platform, full, transparent end-to-end encryption for text chats is a mandatory fix, not a future upgrade.

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