Truecaller faces mounting pressures as its development matures

Truecaller is without doubt one of the world’s most generally used caller identification platforms, with greater than 500 million customers. Now it’s coming into a tougher part as development slows in its largest market and competitors intensifies throughout telecom networks and smartphone platforms.

A lot of Truecaller’s development has been pushed by India, which accounts for over 350 million users, or about 70% of its international base. The quantity of spam and undesirable calls has turned the app from a easy caller ID service right into a extra embedded layer of on a regular basis communication.

That place is now shaping its subsequent part. The corporate has launched options comparable to AI Assistant and Household Safety to drive monetization, alongside instruments like Community Suggestions to remain related as competitors intensifies. This comes as telecom-led options comparable to Calling Name Presentation (CNAP), dedicated number series for verified enterprise calls, and AI-based spam safety acquire traction in India. In the meantime, smartphone makers together with Apple and Google proceed to construct caller identification and spam-blocking capabilities into their working programs.

As competitors will increase, Truecaller’s development is beginning to gradual. Knowledge shared with TechCrunch from Sensor Tower reveals downloads from India fell 16% year-over-year in 2025, whereas international downloads declined 5%, marking a reversal after a number of years of development. Separate information from Appfigures reveals downloads peaked at 175 million in 2021, dropped sharply in 2022 and have since hovered round 120 million yearly.

India stays Truecaller’s largest market, however its share of downloads has declined from over 70% at its peak to the mid-50s lately, pointing to a gradual shift in new consumer development towards different markets.

Truecaller’s shift in development dynamics is being intently watched by traders. The corporate’s shares have fallen about 78% since its 2021 IPO and are down round 37% thus far this yr, underscoring investor issues about its development outlook and enterprise mannequin. Chief Government Rishit Jhunjhunwala advised TechCrunch that one of many key questions from traders has been across the affect of CNAP in India. He additionally acknowledged current headwinds in components of the enterprise, with out elaborating additional.

CNAP, an initiative pushed by India’s telecom regulator and is being implemented by telecom operators, shows caller names based mostly on KYC information on the community stage with out requiring third-party apps. This overlaps with a part of Truecaller’s core providing, however is extra restricted in scope.

Truecaller’s Jhunjhunwala stated the corporate doesn’t see CNAP as a disruption however as validation of the issue.

“Truecaller operates as a worldwide platform with a a lot richer and dynamic intelligence layer — spanning spam detection, fraud prevention, enterprise identification, and consumer context throughout calls and messages,” he stated. “This enables us to go considerably past fundamental caller ID.”

Bharath Nagaraj, director of fairness analysis at Cantor Fitzgerald, stated CNAP might gradual consumer development however is unlikely to materially disrupt Truecaller’s core enterprise within the close to time period. As a substitute, he pointed to strain within the firm’s promoting section — pushed partially by modifications from Google — because the extra quick problem.

“In the event you take a look at the earnings for the corporate, 65%–70% of it now comes from advert income. And that impacted lately,” Nagaraj advised TechCrunch.

In its last earnings call (PDF), Truecaller stated that it misplaced roughly one-third of advert visitors from its largest companion in August 2025 — a companion analysts on the decision recognized as Google. Jhunjhunwala attributed the drop to an unresolved “algorithm concern,” whereas CFO Odd Bolin stated the companion nonetheless accounts for greater than a 3rd of complete income. The corporate is now including new companions and constructing its personal advert trade to cut back dependence on any single platform.

However even transferring to an in-house advert trade could not absolutely deal with the problem. Promoting stays extremely aggressive, with manufacturers capable of spend throughout a number of digital platforms, stated Nagaraj. “You’ll be able to present your adverts on Truecaller, however you may also present them on Fb,” he stated.

In-app income continues to develop

The strain on promoting comes whilst different components of Truecaller’s enterprise are on a special trajectory. Knowledge from Appfigures reveals that whereas downloads have plateaued lately, gross in-app income has risen sharply — from $600,000 in 2017 to $39.3 million in 2025. It has already reached $13.4 million this yr as of April 20.

Month-to-month income generated by in-app purchases on Truecaller is now constantly above $2 million and nonetheless climbing, per Appfigures.

Truecaller’s presence on iOS has additionally grown from lower than 5% of its complete downloads in 2020–2021 to round 11–12% lately, per Appfigures, highlighting a shift towards higher-value markets. The corporate has stepped up efforts on Apple’s platform, together with launching real-time caller ID for iPhone in early 2025 and rolling out function updates to enhance parity with its Android app.

Nonetheless, Apple lately expanded its call-screening capabilities, which might scale back the necessity for third-party apps amongst iPhone customers.

One other key pillar of Truecaller’s monetization technique is its enterprise providing, Truecaller for Enterprise, which allows corporations to confirm their identities and talk with prospects by way of calls and messaging. The section has been rising steadily, with revenue rising 39% in constant currency in 2025. Truecaller’s Jhunjhunwala stated the corporate is increasing the platform globally by opening its chat providers to companions and providing instruments comparable to verified enterprise caller ID to assist enterprises confirm identification and attain prospects.

Alongside its enterprise push, Truecaller has additionally been increasing its client subscription enterprise, which has over 4 million paid subscribers globally, as extra customers go for options comparable to superior spam safety, AI-based name screening, and an ad-free expertise.

Up to now, Truecaller has been criticized over the way it builds and maintains its huge database of telephone identities. An investigation by The Caravan raised questions on consent and information assortment practices, significantly in India, the place information safety legal guidelines have thus far been much less stringent. Truecaller has denied wrongdoing and maintains that it complies with relevant laws, however the debate underlines the broader problem of balancing utility, scale, and consumer privateness.

Regardless of all these challenges, Truecaller sees important room for development. The corporate is targeted on addressing the rising complexity of communication, Jhunjhunwala stated, as spam and rip-off calls turn into extra refined with advances in AI. Equally, it plans to develop throughout all three income streams — promoting, enterprise providers, and premium subscriptions — because it seems to be to maintain development throughout markets. Whether or not that might be sufficient, nonetheless, could rely upon how rapidly it may well adapt as caller identification shifts from standalone apps to the community, and to the telephone itself.