Truecaller struggles as growth slows in mature market

Truecaller, the caller identification platform boasting over 500 million users worldwide, is navigating a turbulent new chapter. The company’s expansion is stalling in its most critical market, India, while competition from telecom providers and smartphone operating systems heats up. This marks a significant pivot from a period of explosive growth.

India has long been Truecaller’s engine, housing more than 350 million users , roughly 70% of its global base. The sheer volume of spam and nuisance calls there transformed the app from a simple ID tool into an essential communication layer. Now, that very dominance is creating new pressures.

To sustain momentum, Truecaller is rolling out monetization features like an AI Assistant and Family Protection plans. It is also leaning on tools like Community Suggestions to maintain relevance. These moves come as network-level solutions gain ground in India, including Calling Name Presentation (CNAP) , dedicated number series for verified business lines, and AI-driven spam filters from telecoms. Meanwhile, tech giants Apple and Google are embedding similar caller ID and spam-blocking features directly into their operating systems.

The competitive pressure is showing in the numbers. Data from Sensor Tower, shared with TechCrunch, reveals that downloads from India fell 16% year-over-year in 2025. Global downloads slipped 5% during the same period, reversing years of steady growth. Appfigures data corroborates this trend, showing downloads peaked at 175 million in 2021, dropped sharply in 2022, and have since stabilized around 120 million annually. While India remains the largest market, its share of new downloads has fallen from over 70% at its peak to the mid-50s, indicating a gradual geographic shift in user acquisition.

Investors are watching these dynamics closely. Truecaller’s stock has tumbled roughly 78% since its 2021 IPO and is down about 37% this year alone, reflecting deep concern over its growth trajectory. CEO Rishit Jhunjhunwala told TechCrunch that a primary investor question revolves around the impact of CNAP in India. He acknowledged recent business headwinds but declined to specify further.

Ads, Not CNAP, Pose the Immediate Threat

CNAP, an initiative from India’s telecom regulator now being implemented by operators, displays caller names based on KYC records at the network level, bypassing third-party apps. While it overlaps with Truecaller’s core offering, its scope is more limited. Jhunjhunwala views CNAP not as a disruption but as validation of the problem Truecaller solves.

“Truecaller operates as a global platform with a much richer and dynamic intelligence layer , spanning spam detection, fraud prevention, business identity, and user context across calls and messages,” he said. “This allows us to go significantly beyond basic caller ID.”

Bharath Nagaraj, director of equity research at Cantor Fitzgerald, agrees that CNAP could slow user growth but is unlikely to severely disrupt Truecaller’s core business in the near term. Instead, he identifies pressure in the advertising segment , partly driven by changes from Google , as the more urgent challenge. “If you look at the earnings for the company, 65%–70% of it now comes from ad revenue. And that impacted recently,” Nagaraj told TechCrunch.

In its latest earnings call, Truecaller reported losing roughly one-third of ad traffic from its largest partner in August 2025 , a partner analysts identified as Google. Jhunjhunwala attributed the drop to an unresolved “algorithm issue,” while CFO Odd Bolin noted that partner still accounts for more than a third of total revenue. Truecaller is now adding new partners and building its own ad exchange to reduce reliance on any single platform. However, Nagaraj warns that an in-house exchange may not fully solve the problem. “You can show your ads on Truecaller, but you can also show them on Facebook,” he said.

In-App Revenue Tells a Different Story

While downloads have plateaued, other parts of the business are thriving. Appfigures data shows gross in-app revenue surged from $600,000 in 2017 to $39.3 million in 2025, and has already reached $13.4 million as of April 20 this year. Monthly revenue from in-app purchases now consistently exceeds $2 million and is still climbing.

Truecaller’s presence on iOS has also grown from less than 5% of total downloads in 2020–2021 to roughly 11–12% today, signaling a shift toward higher-value markets. The company has stepped up its Apple efforts, launching real-time caller ID for iPhone in early 2025 and rolling out feature updates to close the gap with its Android app. Still, Apple recently expanded its own call-screening capabilities, potentially reducing the need for third-party apps among iPhone users.

Another key growth driver is Truecaller for Business, the company’s enterprise offering that lets companies verify their identities and communicate with customers via calls and messaging. Revenue from this segment rose 39% in constant currency in 2025. Jhunjhunwala says the company is expanding globally by opening chat services to partners and offering tools like verified business caller ID. Alongside this, Truecaller’s consumer subscription business now has over 4 million paid subscribers worldwide, drawn by features like advanced spam protection, AI-based call screening, and an ad-free experience.

Truecaller has faced scrutiny over how it builds and maintains its vast phone identity database. An investigation by The Caravan raised questions about consent and data collection, particularly in India where data protection laws have been less stringent. The company has denied wrongdoing and says it complies with all applicable regulations, but the debate highlights the ongoing challenge of balancing utility, scale, and user privacy.

Despite these hurdles, Truecaller sees significant room for growth. Jhunjhunwala says the company is focused on addressing the rising complexity of communication, as spam and scam calls become more sophisticated with advances in AI. It plans to expand across all three revenue streams , advertising, enterprise services, and premium subscriptions , to sustain growth across markets. Whether that strategy succeeds will likely depend on how quickly Truecaller can adapt as caller identification shifts from standalone apps to the network and the phone itself.