User flags missed encryption opportunity; Zoho's Vembu says: "Hype will come and go. We’ll make the product awesome and people will come."

The last week was dominated by various tech announcements from all major giants. One such moment unravelled on X.

Elon Musk updates X

On one side Elon Musk, announced the rollout of X’s new encrypted communications stack: end-to-end encrypted messages, audio and video calls, file transfers, and an upcoming payments system woven directly into the platform.

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Netizen cite missed opportunity for Zoho

In a reply to Musk’s post, a user contemplated that Arattai, Zoho’s Indian-built messaging app (touted to be a rival to WhatsApp) still lacked encryption, adding that the company had failed to capitalise on a wave of recent interest.

That criticism drew a response from Sridhar Vembu, Zoho’s founder, who clarified that Arattai had chosen a more demanding but more secure route: mandatory system-wide end-to-end encryption.

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Sridhar Vembu clarifies 

In a post on X, Vembu revealed that Arattai’s encryption rollout would begin with one-to-one chats before expanding to group conversations soon after. The company has already begun testing the update internally on a large scale. “Around 6,000 Zoho employees are currently trialling the updated version,” he said, noting that the initial rounds of testing helped engineers uncover and fix multiple issues. A new build is now undergoing a fresh cycle of tests to ensure everything runs smoothly.

“If all goes well, we plan to deploy in a few days. It will be a forced upgrade on everything because it is a drastic change,” Vembu confirmed, suggesting users will not be able to skip the update once it goes live.

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His take on updates 

“Hype will come and go,” he wrote. “We will make the product awesome and people will come.”

Sridhar Vembu, known for his hands-on involvement with Zoho’s engineering teams, thanked users for their patience as the company worked to get the rollout right. He described the process as both complex and essential for Arattai’s long-term evolution.

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