In a major shake-up of how messaging apps may work, Zoho co-founder Sridhar Vembu has floated the idea that messaging platforms should become interoperable — meaning you could use one app to message a user on another. The suggestion comes as Arattai, the India-homegrown chat app from Zoho Corporation, rises in popularity and as WhatsApp reportedly begins testing cross-platform messaging features.
What’s going on
- Arattai has experienced a surge in downloads in India and positioning itself as a local alternative to WhatsApp.
- Vembu proposed that chat systems should work like payments do in India — think of something akin to UPI for messaging — so that they’re interoperable, and not locked into one app.
- Meanwhile, WhatsApp (owned by Meta Platforms) is reportedly testing a feature in some regions that would let users send messages to people using other apps (for now limited to specific third-party apps).
- If realised, this could mean a WhatsApp user sending a message to someone on Arattai without switching apps — a radical shift from the status quo of locked-in messaging ecosystems.
Why this matters
- Open messaging networks: If apps allow cross-platform chat, users are no longer locked into one ecosystem. This could break down the “everyone must be on the same app” hurdle.
- Competition & choice: For users who’ve previously stayed on WhatsApp because “everyone else is there”, interoperability could mean easier moves to alternative apps like Arattai.
- Privacy and control: Vembu’s vision emphasises sovereignty (“we do not want to be a monopoly ever”), meaning control over data, local infrastructure, and independence.
- Regulation’s role: Some of the shift may be driven by regulatory pressure in markets like Europe, where large messaging platforms are being asked to open up to others.
- Strategic advantage for homegrown apps: For Arattai, interoperability could help accelerate adoption, since one barrier for switching apps is “my friends are still on WhatsApp”.
Key details to note
- The proposed cross-chat feature is still in testing (in some markets).
- It’s currently unclear when or if the feature will roll out in India.
- For interoperability to work well, all apps involved need to meet similar security standards (encryption, etc.).
- Although Arattai has grown fast, it still lacks full maturity compared to larger incumbents and is in the process of rolling out key features like full end-to-end encryption.
What this could mean for you
If you’re a social-media manager, digital marketer or someone who works in mobile apps, this is a trend you should keep an eye on:
- When users can move more freely between chat platforms, app-stickiness becomes less of a given. That means app developers and marketers may need to emphasise feature-set, privacy, data sovereignty, and user experience to retain users.
- For brands: Messaging apps are not just for friends & family. They’re channels for customer engagement, support, notifications. Knowing that chats may cross platforms means you might need to plan for that flexibility.
- For local Indian tech start-ups: This is a strong signal that homegrown messaging platforms with local infrastructure and data-control may gain more relevance.
- For users: You may gain more freedom in the near future to pick the app you like while still remaining reachable by others who use different apps.
Challenges ahead
- Technical: Ensuring secure, reliable cross-app messaging is non-trivial — encryption, message delivery, synchronisation, different versions of apps.
- Adoption: Even if interoperability is enabled, many users might resist switching apps until they’re confident the alternative matches feature parity and trust.
- Monetisation & business models: For apps like Arattai, growth is one thing; ensuring sustainable revenue, service quality, and user trust is another.
- Ecosystem inertia: WhatsApp has hundreds of millions of users in India; shifting even a fraction takes time.
- Regulatory & standardisation: Like payments, messaging interoperability may need standards, protocols, and regulatory frameworks in place.
Final thoughts
What Vembu and Zoho are proposing is a paradigm shift in messaging: from closed ecosystems (you must use the app your contacts use) toward an open-network approach (you can message across apps). If realised, this could change how we think about chat apps, user choice, and digital-communication freedom — particularly in markets like India where the dominance of one giant app has long been a barrier to alternatives.
Keep an eye on Arattai’s journey, WhatsApp’s interoperability efforts, and the broader policy/regulatory environment. The next few years in messaging could look very different from the last decade.
