India Doesn't Need Another WhatsApp. It Needs a New Digital Experience
By Sachin Bhardwaj | Independent Strategic Advisor | Public Policy | Urban & Rural Development
Over the past few weeks, I have been closely observing Zoho Arattai, not just as another messaging application but as a product with the potential to become something much bigger. While exploring its possibilities, I created a series of concept designs that reimagine what Arattai could become if it moved beyond being a chat app and evolved into a communication-first super app.
It is important to clarify that the concepts shown in my designs are not representations of the current Arattai product. They simply reflect my vision from a Product and Experience Strategy perspective. Today, Arattai largely feels like a combination of WhatsApp and Telegram with a fresh interface. My concepts explore a completely different direction where conversations become the gateway to a much larger digital ecosystem.
Should Arattai compete with WhatsApp or should it create an entirely new category?
The Market Doesn't Need Another Messaging App
Every few years, a new messaging platform enters the market with the hope of replacing WhatsApp. Most of them launch with familiar promises such as better privacy, more features, faster performance and improved communities.
Yet almost every one of them encounters the same challenge. People do not leave WhatsApp because they dislike it. They stay because everyone they know is already there.
That is the power of network effects.
In India, WhatsApp is no longer just another application. It has become part of everyday life. Families communicate through it. Businesses depend on it. Schools, hospitals, local shops, government offices and service providers all use it as their primary communication channel.
When users evaluate a new messaging platform, they rarely ask whether it has better features. Instead, they ask a much simpler question.
"Who else is already using it?"
If the answer is "almost nobody," the product immediately faces an uphill battle. This is why feature parity has never been a winning strategy.
Copying Success Has Rarely Created Market Leaders
Technology history repeatedly teaches us that successful products do not emerge by becoming slightly better copies of existing ones. Facebook did not become successful by copying MySpace. Instagram did not win by becoming another Flickr. TikTok did not grow by trying to be YouTube. ChatGPT did not become popular by positioning itself as another search engine.
Each of these products succeeded because they introduced a different user experience rather than replicating an existing one.
That is exactly where I believe Arattai stands today. If its long-term vision is to become another WhatsApp or another Telegram, then its opportunity is already limited before the journey truly begins.
Why I Designed Arattai as a Super App
The concepts I created were never intended as UI redesigns. They were an exercise in strategic thinking. I asked myself a simple question.
What if conversations became the entry point for everything people do digitally?
Today, conversations rarely end with messages. While chatting, people send money, book tickets, share documents, schedule meetings, discover local businesses, verify identities, pay bills, save information and increasingly ask AI for assistance.
Yet every one of these actions forces users to leave the conversation and switch between multiple applications. That constant switching creates friction.
Instead of building a better chat application, what if Arattai focused on eliminating that friction? That single shift completely changes the product strategy.
The concepts I designed around Wallet, Payments, DigiLocker integration, Business Services, AI, Meetings, Local Commerce, Travel, Wellness and Channels were never intended as feature requests. They represent a completely different philosophy.
The conversation should not be the destination. It should become the operating system.
India Has a Bigger Opportunity Than Messaging
Most countries do not have the digital public infrastructure that India has built over the last decade. India already has UPI, Aadhaar, DigiLocker, BBPS, ONDC and the Account Aggregator framework. It has one of the world's strongest digital identity and payment infrastructures.
The real opportunity is not to build another messaging platform on top of this ecosystem. The opportunity is to build the consumer experience layer that intelligently connects everything together.
That is a much bigger vision than competing with WhatsApp.
Zoho Is Uniquely Positioned to Build It
Very few Indian technology companies have the ecosystem that Zoho has spent decades building. Across enterprise software, collaboration, finance, CRM, meetings, productivity and AI, Zoho already owns an impressive technology stack.
What it has not yet built is a compelling consumer experience that brings those capabilities together in one unified journey.
Instead of asking users to replace WhatsApp, Arattai could give them reasons to spend more time inside an entirely different ecosystem. That is a far stronger strategy than trying to convince people to abandon a platform they already use every day.
Experience Strategy Matters More Than Feature Strategy
One of the biggest misconceptions in product development is believing that users adopt products because of features.
They do not.
Users adopt experiences.
People rarely remember how many features an application had. They remember whether it saved time, reduced effort, removed unnecessary steps and simply worked.
Experience is ultimately about reducing friction. The products that dominate markets are usually the ones that remove the most friction rather than the ones that add the most features.
If Arattai wants to become truly differentiated, it should focus less on matching competitors feature for feature and more on removing the complexity from everyday digital life.
Conversations Can Become the New Interface
Imagine discussing a holiday with friends. Without leaving the conversation, flights appear, hotels can be booked, payments happen instantly through UPI, travel documents are automatically saved, meetings are scheduled, reminders are created and AI assists throughout the journey.
Nothing feels disconnected because everything happens inside a single contextual experience.
That is what a communication-first super app looks like.
Not dozens of mini apps. Not endless menus. Instead, one continuous experience where conversations naturally lead to actions.
My Perspective
I have previously shared a similar opinion and after studying Arattai more closely, I feel even more convinced.
Unless the Government of India bans WhatsApp, something that appears highly unlikely under current circumstances, no messaging platform will replace it simply by offering similar features with a different design.
That battle has already been decided.
The real opportunity lies somewhere else.
Arattai should stop competing to become a better WhatsApp. Instead, it should aspire to become something WhatsApp was never designed to be.
A communication-first super app built for India where conversations seamlessly connect payments, identity, commerce, AI, business, government services and everyday digital experiences into one unified ecosystem.
That is not just another messaging application. It is an entirely new product category.
History consistently rewards companies that create new categories rather than companies that become better copies of existing ones.
Innovation creates opportunities. Copying rarely creates leadership.