Not WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram, only Zoho's Arattai gives users this unique feature in 2025 — Check details here

Zoho Corp's Arattai messaging app, which is being touted as India's answer to Meta's WhatsApp, has got most global messaging apps beat with this one feature it provides. What is it? An official app for download on Android TV.

There has been a growing consciousness about the need of Indian companies to build software for the home masses that can take over the role played by global tech giants for years. Zoho has a long history of competing with the global giants with its business solutions but the company's new app Arattai has made quite a wave on social media with netizens terming it as the ‘WhatsApp killer’.

Arattai on Android TV: Edge in versatility

Till date, no other messaging app, including WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, WeChat, Line or KakaoTalk offer official Android TV download for their apps. Users have to make do with temporary solutions or ‘jugaad’ techniques to access their messages on TV.

However, Arattai gives users an official, dedicated app for Android TV that is available for download via PlayStore.

In the battle for dominance against WhatsApp, Arattai's multi-device support (Linux, macOS and Windows), and availability on Android TV gives it a unique edge in terms of versatility.

Arattai vs WhatsApp: What else is new?

Arattai, the homegrown messaging app built by Chennai-based Zoho Corporation, is experiencing a meteoric rise, positioning itself as India’s strongest challenger to WhatsApp. Here are some other features where it trumps WhatsApp:

• Meetings: ​While WhatsApp's video calling feature has got various updates in the last few years, the feature is nowhere close to the Meetings feature that Arattai boasts. The feature allows users to conduct meetings similar to Google Meet and Zoom but from the convenience of their messaging app. The Meetings feature which is present on the bottom dock in the Arattai app has options for creating an instant meeting, joining a meeting and scheduling a meeting for a later time. Users can also see all their scheduled meetings and previous meetings right from this menu.

• ​Pocket: ​If you are like me, you must have sent a message to yourself on WhatsApp to save some important information. Once again, Arattai takes this a step further with the ‘Pocket’ feature which acts as the user's personal ‘cloud storage’ to share messages, media and more.
• ​Mentions: ​While it can sometimes become a hassle to see where you did a notification from on WhatsApp, the same is not the case on Arattai. The app has a Slack-like ‘Mentions’ section which lists all the texts that have mentioned the user.

• No ads: ​Arattai features no ads so far and also assures users that it will not be using their data for advertising. In contrast, WhatsApp has started showing ads in the Updates tab and also shares some data with its parent Meta for advertising purposes.
• ​No forced AI: ​The AI features prominently in the search bar on WhatsApp along with other parts of the app and Meta doesn't provide a single setting to completely turn off all the AI features in the app. ​In contrast, Arattai doesn't seem to feature any AI features at the moment and while the company can add these features in an incremental manner, hopefully it won't impose them on users similar to Meta.