Truecaller faces increasing pressure as its growth matures

Truecaller is one of the most widely used caller ID platforms in the world, with over 500 million users. It is now entering a more challenging phase as growth slows in its largest markets and competition intensifies across telecom networks and smartphone platforms.

Most of Truecaller’s growth has been driven by India, which has more than 350 million users, or about 70% of its global base. The volume of spam and unwanted calls has transformed the app from a simple caller ID service into a more integrated layer for everyday communications.

This position now constitutes its next stage. The company has introduced features like AI Assistant and family protection for monetization, along with tools like community suggestions to stay relevant as competition heats up. This comes at a time when telecom-led solutions such as Call Name Display (CNAP), dedicated number string for verified business calls, and AI-based spam protection are gaining traction in India. Meanwhile, smartphone makers, including Apple and Google, continue to build caller identification and spam blocking capabilities into their operating systems.

As competition increased, Truecaller’s growth began to slow down. Data shared with TechCrunch from Sensor Tower shows that downloads from India fell 16% year-on-year in 2025, while global downloads fell 5%, marking a reversal after several years of growth. Separate data from Appfigures shows that downloads peaked at 175 million in 2021, fell sharply in 2022, and have since been around 120 million annually.

India remains Truecaller’s largest market, but its share of downloads has declined from more than 70% at its peak to the mid-50s in recent years, indicating a gradual shift in new user growth toward other markets.

Truecaller’s shift in growth dynamics is being closely watched by investors. The company’s shares have fallen about 78% since its IPO in 2021 and are down about 37% so far this year, underscoring investors’ concerns about its growth outlook and business model. One of the key questions from investors was about the impact of CNAP in India, CEO Rishit Jhunjhunwala told TechCrunch. He also acknowledged recent headwinds in parts of the business, without going into further detail.

CNAP, an initiative pushed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and implemented by telecom operators, displays names of callers based on network-level KYC records without the need for third-party applications. This overlaps with part of Truecaller’s core offering, but is limited in scope.

Truecaller’s Jhunjhunwala said the company does not view CNAP as a disruption, but rather as a validation of the issue.

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

CNAP could slow user growth but is unlikely to meaningfully disrupt Truecaller’s core business in the near term, said Bharath Nagaraj, director of equity research at Cantor Fitzgerald. Instead, he pointed to pressure in the company’s advertising sector – driven in part by changes from Google – as the most pressing challenge.

“If you look at the company’s earnings, 65% to 70% of it now comes from advertising revenue. That has been impacted recently,” Nagaraj told TechCrunch.

In its latest earnings call (PDF), Truecaller said it lost nearly a third of ad traffic from its largest partner in August 2025 — a partner analyst on the call identified as Google. Jhunjhunwala attributed the decline to an unresolved “algorithmic issue,” while CFO Odd Bolin said the partner still represented more than a third of total revenue. The company is now adding new partners and building its own ad exchange to reduce reliance on any one platform.

But even moving to an in-house ad exchange may not fully address the challenge. Advertising remains highly competitive, with brands able to spend across multiple digital platforms, Nagaraj said. “You can run your ads on Truecaller, but you can also run them on Facebook,” he said.

In-app revenue continues to grow

The push on advertising comes at a time when other parts of Truecaller’s business are heading down a different path. Data from Appfigures shows that while downloads have leveled off in recent years, total in-app revenue has risen sharply — from $600,000 in 2017 to $39.3 million in 2025. It has already reached $13.4 million this year as of April 20.

Monthly revenue generated from in-app purchases on Truecaller is now above $2 million and still rising, according to app numbers.

Truecaller’s presence on iOS has also grown from less than 5% of total downloads in 2020-2021 to around 11-12% in recent years, according to app numbers, highlighting the shift towards higher value markets. The company has ramped up its efforts on the Apple platform, including launching real-time caller ID for iPhones in early 2025, and rolling out feature updates to improve parity with its Android app.

However, Apple has recently expanded its call screening capabilities, which may reduce the need for third-party apps among iPhone users.

Another key pillar of Truecaller’s monetization strategy is its enterprise offering, Truecaller for Business, which enables businesses to verify their identities and communicate with customers via calls and messages. The segment is growing steadily, with revenue rising 39% in constant currency in 2025. Truecaller’s Jhunjhunwala said the company is expanding the platform globally by opening up its chat services to partners and offering tools like verified business caller ID to help businesses verify identity and reach customers.

Along with its enterprise support, Truecaller is also expanding its consumer subscriptions business, which has more than 4 million paid subscribers globally, as more users opt for features like advanced spam protection, AI-based call screening, and an ad-free experience.

In the past, Truecaller has been criticized for how it builds and maintains its extensive database of phone identities. An investigation by The Caravan has raised questions about consent and data collection practices, especially in India, where data protection laws have been less stringent until now. Truecaller has denied any wrongdoing and maintained that it complies with applicable regulations, but the debate highlights the broader challenge of balancing utility, scale and user privacy.

Despite all these challenges, Truecaller sees a lot of room for growth. Jhunjhunwala said the company is focusing on addressing the increasing complexity of communications, as spam and fraud calls are becoming more complex with advances in artificial intelligence. Likewise, it plans to expand across all three revenue streams – advertising, enterprise services, and premium subscriptions – as it looks to maintain growth across markets. However, whether that is enough may depend on how quickly caller identification shifts from standalone apps to the network, and to the phone itself.