Sridhar Vembu just dropped a big warning for Arattai users ahead of new update: here's what to know

Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu has confirmed that the company is adding end-to-end encryption to its WhatsApp rival, Arattai. The 57-year-old techie said that Zoho is planning to launch a new update for the Arattai app in a couple of weeks.

“We will have an update in a couple of days. The full backup will be launched in two to four weeks,” Vembu said in an interaction with ANI.

“It will take us some time. So tomorrow or the day after, in a couple of days, we’ll have an update. Then, in another two weeks, we will have an update because one thing about end-to-end encryption is that you have to have a backup. Otherwise, if you reinstall the app, you will lose all your chats. We are actually working on the backup. In the cloud version, the backup was stored on the server automatically. Now, in this device’s encrypted version, you have to choose a backup... You have to have the original device key. It’s a technically complex thing to solve. We are going to launch it with the idea that you can use it, but the backup will land in maybe two, three, or four weeks,” he added.

Notably, Arattai already had end-to-end encryption for voice and video calls but lacked the feature for text messages. However, the company claims on its website that all its data is stored in India and that all conversations and titles are encrypted in storage.

Arattai lacks key feature that WhatsApp and Telegram have for ages

Arattai gained a lot of popularity in India a few weeks ago when the app topped the charts on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store amid a push for homegrown software apps.

However, a major criticism of Arattai has been the lack of end-to-end encryption — a key security feature that global rivals like WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram have had for years.

The company also claims that it does not sell user data or monetise it through advertisements. In contrast, WhatsApp has recently begun showing ads to users on their Status. Meanwhile, Meta has also confirmed that it will use users’ conversations with Meta AI to personalise ads and other content.