Truecaller, the app that tells you who's calling before you decide to ignore them, has over 500 million users worldwide. But the party might be winding down: growth is slowing in its biggest market, India, and everyone from telecoms to smartphone makers wants a piece of the caller-ID action.
India, where roughly 350 million of Truecaller's users live, has been the company's bread and butter. Spam calls are so rampant there that the app went from a handy tool to a near-essential part of daily life. Now, Truecaller is trying to keep the momentum going with features like AI Assistant and Family Protection, plus Community Suggestions to stay relevant. The problem? Telecom-led solutions like Calling Name Presentation (CNAP), dedicated business call numbers, and AI spam filters are muscling in. Meanwhile, Apple and Google are baking caller ID and spam blocking directly into their phones - no third-party app required.
Data from Sensor Tower shows the toll: downloads from India dropped 16% year-over-year in 2025, and global downloads fell 5%, a sharp reversal after years of steady growth. Appfigures data confirms downloads peaked at 175 million in 2021, cratered in 2022, and have since plateaued around 120 million annually. India still leads, but its share of downloads has slipped from over 70% to the mid-50s, hinting that new users are increasingly coming from elsewhere.
Investors are not amused. Truecaller's shares have tumbled about 78% since its 2021 IPO and are down roughly 37% this year alone. CEO Rishit Jhunjhunwala told TechCrunch that investors keep asking about CNAP's impact in India, though he also acknowledged unspecified headwinds in parts of the business.
CNAP, pushed by India's telecom regulator, displays caller names based on KYC records at the network level - no app needed. It overlaps with Truecaller's core offering, albeit in a more limited way. Jhunjhunwala insists CNAP isn't a disruption but "validation of the problem." Truecaller, he says, offers richer intelligence - spam detection, fraud prevention, business identity, and user context - far beyond basic caller ID.
Bharath Nagaraj, director of equity research at Cantor Fitzgerald, thinks CNAP might slow user growth but won't derail the core business soon. The bigger headache? Advertising. "65% - 70% of revenue now comes from ad revenue, and that was impacted recently," Nagaraj said. In its last earnings call, Truecaller revealed it lost roughly one-third of ad traffic from its largest partner in August 2025 - analysts identified the partner as Google. Jhunjhunwala blamed 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 dependence on any single platform. But Nagaraj points out that ads are a crowded market: "You can show your ads on Truecaller, but you can also show them on Facebook."
On the bright side, in-app purchases are booming. Gross in-app revenue soared from $600,000 in 2017 to $39.3 million in 2025, and it's already at $13.4 million this year as of April 20. Monthly in-app purchase revenue is consistently above $2 million and climbing. iOS users now account for 11-12% of downloads, up from less than 5% in 2020-2021, signaling a shift toward higher-value markets. Truecaller launched real-time caller ID for iPhone in early 2025 and has been updating features to catch up with its Android app. But Apple recently expanded its own call-screening capabilities, so that advantage may not last.
Truecaller for Business, the enterprise arm, is growing steadily with revenue up 39% in constant currency in 2025. The company is expanding globally by opening chat services to partners and offering verified business caller ID. The subscription business now has over 4 million paid subscribers, drawn by advanced spam protection, AI call screening, and ad-free usage.
Privacy concerns linger. An investigation by The Caravan questioned Truecaller's data collection practices, especially in India where data protection laws are lax. Truecaller denies wrongdoing and says it complies with regulations, but the debate underscores the tension between utility and privacy.
CEO Jhunjhunwala insists there's plenty of room to grow, focusing on AI-driven spam and scam calls that are getting more sophisticated. The company plans to expand across advertising, enterprise, and subscriptions. Whether that's enough depends on how fast it can adapt as caller ID moves from third-party apps to networks and phones themselves.