Sridhar Vembu says Arattai’s biggest security upgrade will roll out in days

Sridhar Vembu, co-founder and Chief Scientist of Zoho, has revealed that Arattai, the company's proprietary messaging service, is on the verge of a critical update that will implement mandatory end-to-end encryption across its platform. This significant enhancement is poised to be one of the largest upgrades since the app's inception. In a recent post on X, Vembu informed followers that the rollout will commence with one-on-one chats, followed by group conversations shortly thereafter. This extensive upgrade necessitated a complete redesign and meticulous internal testing due to its complexity. Currently, approximately 6,000 Zoho employees are participating in tests for the updated version. During initial testing phases, the engineering team identified and resolved several issues. They are now engaged in another round of testing on a new build. If all final checks are successful, Zoho anticipates launching the update within days. Users will be required to upgrade, as the new encryption model significantly alters the app's foundational architecture. Vembu also mentioned that while users can download the latest version of Arattai, the encryption feature will remain inactive until testing is finalized and the team activates it. In addition to enhanced security, the new build promises performance upgrades, offering a faster and more user-friendly interface. The Zoho chief expressed gratitude to users for their patience as the company transitions to a more secure messaging environment. “If all goes well, we plan to deploy in a few days. It will be a forced upgrade for all users due to the drastic nature of this change,” Vembu emphasized. In response to a query from a user regarding potential protocol-level changes with the new encryption, he assured that the stable code for protocol-level operations is intact. However, challenges arose during the mandatory transition process and with transferring larger files, particularly on Android devices, which the team is currently addressing.