After a big spike in October, Arattai’s app downloads and rankings have dropped sharply by early November, hinting at cooling interest.
CHENNAI: After making a splash last month, Arattai — the made-in-India messaging app — is already seeing its buzz wear off. As of November 4, Arattai had slipped to 105th place on the Google Play leaderboard, and dropped even lower to 123rd on Apple’s App Store, according to Moneycontrol.
The app had a moment in October, when downloads shot up to a massive 13.8 million, compared to just 2.63 million in September. But the excitement didn’t last long. So far this month, Arattai has seen just 195,519 new downloads, signalling that interest may be fading fast.
Even monthly active users — people actually using the app — reflect the change. Arattai went from 1.17 million active users in September to 4.35 million in October, but that number has now dipped slightly to 4.09 million in November.
Analysts say this kind of short-term spike followed by a dip is pretty common for new apps, especially in the messaging space where giants like WhatsApp and Telegram already dominate. Arattai’s fast rise may have been driven by curiosity, but keeping people around is the real challenge.
The team behind Arattai now faces a key question — can they turn a viral moment into a lasting user base? That’ll likely come down to new features, better engagement, and showing users why they should stay.
