After gaining widespread attention with Arattai last year, Zoho is now expanding the platform into business messaging with the launch of Arattai for Business, aimed at helping companies communicate with their customers and employees.
Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu announced the launch on X, saying the app is now available for businesses to connect with customers.
“The Arattai-for-Business app is live. This app allows businesses to communicate with customers,” Vembu said in his post.
Alongside the new app, Zoho has introduced the Arattai Business Platform, which allows organisations to connect their different software systems and services. Vembu said the platform will be available free of charge for government and public services, including organisations such as the Railways.
“The Arattai Business Platform is free for government and public services like Railways,” he said.
Zoho is also offering special incentives for healthcare and educational institutions. These organisations will receive a free allowance of up to 1 million messages per month when using Arattai Business.
What is Arattai for Business?
Arattai for Business is designed as a communication platform for companies to interact with both customers and employees. Businesses can potentially use the same platform for internal communication as well as customer interactions.
The app was first spotted on the Google Play Store last month and is now available for download. Zoho describes it as a platform built in India for Indian businesses.
The service includes end-to-end encrypted messaging, secure chat synchronisation across devices and data ownership features.
Arattai for Business follows the launch of Zoho’s standard Arattai messaging app. The homegrown messaging platform gained significant attention last year as an Indian alternative to WhatsApp and reached the top position on app stores in India. The word “Arattai” means casual conversation or chit-chat in Tamil.
The launch also comes a day after Meta announced changes to WhatsApp Business pricing. From October 1, businesses using WhatsApp Business will be charged for certain service messages that were previously free. While some messages will continue to be available without charge, businesses will now have to pay for utility messages such as order confirmations and delivery updates, including some messages sent within the 24-hour customer service window.
Zoho has not yet announced the pricing structure for Arattai for Business.
