Truecaller faces mounting pressures as its development matures

Truecaller is among the world’s most generally used caller identification platforms, with more than 500 million users. Now it’s coming into a more difficult section 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 usersor about 70% of its world 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 section. The corporate has launched options resembling AI Assistant and Family Protection to drive monetizationalongside instruments like Community Suggestions to remain related as competitors intensifies. This comes as telecom-led options resembling Calling Name Presentation (CNAP), dedicated number series for verified enterprise calls, and AI-based spam protection 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 methods.

As competitors will increase, Truecaller’s development is beginning to gradual. Knowledge shared with TechCrunch from Sensor Tower exhibits downloads from India fell 16% year-over-year in 2025, whereas world downloads declined 5%, marking a reversal after a number of years of development. Separate information from Appfigures exhibits 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 in recent times, pointing to a gradual shift in new consumer development towards different markets.

Truecaller’s shift in development dynamics is being carefully watched by buyers. The corporate’s shares have fallen about 78% since its 2021 IPO and are down round 37% up to now this yr, underscoring investor considerations about its development outlook and enterprise mannequin. Chief Government Rishit Jhunjhunwala instructed TechCrunch that one of many key questions from buyers has been across the affect of CNAP in India. He additionally acknowledged latest headwinds in elements of the enterprise, with out elaborating additional.

CNAP, the initiative pushed by India’s telecom regulator and is being implemented by telecom operatorsshows caller names based mostly on KYC data on the community degree 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 world platform with a a lot richer and dynamic intelligence layer — spanning spam detection, fraud prevention, enterprise id, 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 may 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 phase — pushed partially by adjustments from Google — because the extra quick problem.

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

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

However even transferring to an in-house advert change could not totally tackle the problem. Promoting stays extremely aggressive, with manufacturers in a position to spend throughout a number of digital platforms, stated Nagaraj. “You may present your advertisements on Truecaller, however you can even present them on Fb,” he stated.

In-app income continues to develop

The strain on promoting comes at the same time as different elements of Truecaller’s enterprise are on a unique trajectory. Knowledge from Appfigures exhibits that whereas downloads have plateaued in recent times, 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 persistently 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% in recent times, 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 characteristic updates to enhance parity with its Android app.

Nonetheless, Apple lately expanded its call-screening capabilities, which may cut 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 permits corporations to confirm their identities and talk with clients through calls and messaging. The phase 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 resembling verified enterprise caller ID to assist enterprises confirm id and attain clients.

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 resembling 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 cellphone identities. An investigation by The Caravan raised questions on consent and information assortment practices, significantly in India, the place information safety legal guidelines have up to now been much less stringent. Truecaller has denied wrongdoing and maintains that it complies with relevant rules, however the debate underlines the broader problem of balancing utility, scale, and consumer privateness.

Regardless of all these challenges, Truecaller sees vital room for development. The corporate is concentrated on addressing the rising complexity of communication, Jhunjhunwala stated, as spam and rip-off calls change into extra subtle with advances in AI. Equally, it plans to increase throughout all three income streams — promoting, enterprise providers, and premium subscriptions — because it appears to maintain development throughout markets. Whether or not that will likely be sufficient, nonetheless, could depend upon how rapidly it will possibly adapt as caller identification shifts from standalone apps to the community, and to the cellphone itself.