Arattai to Drop Usernames Days After WhatsApp's Own Feature Hits Government Roadblock

It's been a busy week for messaging apps in India, and WhatsApp isn't the only one making changes. Just days after the government stepped in to pause a new feature on WhatsApp, Zoho's homegrown messaging app Arattai has announced it's pulling the plug on a similar feature of its own - usernames.

What Vembu Announced

Zoho co-founder Sridhar Vembu took to X to reveal that Arattai will be switching off its username-based account system. This was the feature that let people connect with each other on the app using just a username, without needing to exchange phone numbers. In his post, Vembu said the company would be "disabling the username based account feature in Arattai, to comply with the regulatory change."

Why This Is Happening

The announcement comes right on the heels of a similar situation at WhatsApp. Newly appointed WhatsApp CEO Kunal Shah had recently revealed that the Meta-owned app was rolling out usernames of its own, letting people message each other without sharing phone numbers. Almost immediately after, the Indian government stepped in and directed Meta to hold off on the rollout until it had worked through concerns around privacy and security tied to the feature.

It's worth noting, though, that the government hasn't actually banned usernames outright on any of these platforms. What's really happened is that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has sought explanations from three major messaging apps Meta's WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal over concerns that anonymous usernames could be misused to carry out fraud. Since users could message strangers without revealing their phone number, officials worry this makes it harder to trace bad actors hiding behind fake identities.

Meta itself hasn't said it's cancelling usernames on WhatsApp altogether - the feature is simply on pause while discussions continue. Arattai's decision to scrap the feature entirely, then, appears to be a more cautious move on Zoho's part, getting ahead of any regulatory pressure rather than waiting to be asked.

A Quick Recap on Arattai

For those unfamiliar, Arattai isn't a brand-new app - it was actually launched back in 2021. It stayed largely under the radar for years until it suddenly went viral late last year, with many Indian users adopting it as a homegrown alternative to WhatsApp, especially amid growing conversations around data privacy and supporting local tech products.

Taken together, these developments point to a larger churn brewing around how messaging apps handle user identity and privacy in India. With regulators now actively questioning multiple platforms over the risks tied to anonymous usernames, it looks like messaging apps operating in the country whether global giants like WhatsApp and Telegram or homegrown players like Arattai may need to rethink how much anonymity they offer users, at least for the time being.

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