Zoho Corporation’s instant messaging application, Arattai, has announced it will officially discontinue its username-based account creation feature. Announcing on social media platform X, Zoho co-founder and Chief Scientist Sridhar Vembu confirmed that the domestic, privacy-focused messaging platform would alter its account protocols to align with recent local compliance developments. “We will be disabling the user name-based account feature in Arattai to comply with the regulatory change. Thank you,” Vembu stated.
The decision marks Arattai as one of the first domestic communication platforms to proactively retract the functionality following intense government scrutiny over user anonymity. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) recently issued a formal notice to Meta-owned WhatsApp regarding its upcoming username rollout, warning that connecting users without identifiable telephone numbers could spike digital arrest scams, identity spoofing, and advanced phishing operations.
The central government has since widened its investigation, issuing regulatory notices to existing encrypted networks like Telegram and Signal to evaluate their anti-impersonation safeguards. By completely disabling the configuration, Arattai avoids potential administrative friction, pivoting back to a strict mobile-number authentication model to ensure trace-level clarity against fraudulent online actors.
