Truecaller faces increasing pressures as its growth matures

Truecaller is one of the most used caller ID platforms in the world More than 500 million users. Now it is entering a tougher phase as growth in its biggest market slows and competition intensifies in telecom networks and smartphone platforms.

Much of Truecaller’s growth has been driven by India More than 350 million usersor about 70% of its global base. The volume of spam and unwanted calls has transformed the app from a simple caller ID service to a more embedded layer of everyday communication.

This position is now forming its next phase. The company introduced such functions as AI assistant and Protection of the Family for promote monetizationalong with tools like Community Offerings staying relevant as competition intensifies. It comes as telecom-led solutions like this Caller Name Presentation (CNAP), special series of numbers for confirmed business calls and AI-based spam protection Gaining traction in India. Meanwhile, including smartphone manufacturers apple and Google continue to build caller ID and spam blocking capabilities into their operating systems.

As competition increases, Truecaller’s growth begins to slow. Data from Sensor Tower shared with TechCrunch shows that downloads from India fell 16% year-over-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 reached 120 million annually since then.

India remains Truecaller’s largest market, but its download share has fallen from a peak of 70% in recent years to the mid-50s, signaling a gradual shift in new user growth to other markets.

Truecaller’s change in growth dynamics is closely watched by investors. The company’s shares have fallen about 78% since its 2021 IPO and are down about 37% so far this year, underscoring investor concerns about its growth outlook and business model. CEO Rishit Jhunjhunwala told TechCrunch that one of the main questions from investors has been about CNAP’s impact in India. He also acknowledged recent headwinds in some parts of the business without elaborating.

CNAP, an initiative Pushed by India’s telecom regulator and does carried out by communication operatorsdisplays caller names based on network-level KYC records without requiring third-party software. This overlaps with some of Truecaller’s core offering, but is more limited in scope.

Truecaller’s Jhunjhunwala said the company sees CNAP as an acknowledgment of the problem, not a disruption.

“Truecaller operates as a global platform with a richer and more dynamic layer of intelligence – covering 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, said CNAP could slow user growth but significantly disrupt Truecaller’s core business in the near term. Instead, he pointed to pressure on the company’s advertising segment — driven in part by changes from Google — as a more immediate problem.

“If you look at the company’s earnings, 65% to 70% of it comes from advertising revenue. And that has had an impact lately,” Nagaraj told TechCrunch.

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

But even switching to an internal ad exchange may not completely solve the problem. Advertising remains highly competitive as brands can spend across multiple digital platforms, Nagaraj said. “You can show your ads on Truecaller, but you can also show them on Facebook,” he said.

In-app revenue continues to grow

The push for advertising comes even as other parts of Truecaller’s business take a different trajectory. Data from Appfigures shows that while downloads have declined in recent years, total in-app revenue has increased dramatically – from $600,000 in 2017 to $39.3 million in 2025. As of April 20 of this year, it has already reached 13.4 million dollars.

Monthly revenue from in-app purchases on Truecaller is now consistently over $2 million and still rising, per Appfigures.

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

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

Another key pillar of Truecaller’s monetization strategy is Truecaller for Business, a business offering that allows companies to verify their identity and connect with customers through calls and messaging. The segment is growing steadily, with Revenue at constant currency increased by 39% Truecaller’s Jhunjhunwala said the company is expanding the platform globally by opening chat services to partners and offering tools like verified business caller ID to help businesses authenticate and reach customers.

Along with its enterprise push, Truecaller is expanding its consumer subscription 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 a large database of phone identities. Moment investigation The Caravan has raised questions about consent and data collection practices, particularly in India, where data protection laws have so far been less stringent. Truecaller denied the wrongdoing and claimed it was in compliance with applicable regulations, but the debate highlights the broader challenge of balancing utility, scale and user privacy.

Despite all these challenges, Truecaller sees significant room for growth. As spam and scam calls become more sophisticated with advances in artificial intelligence, Jhunjhunwala, the company is focused on addressing the growing complexity of communication. Likewise, it plans to expand across all three revenue streams — advertising, enterprise services and premium subscriptions — as it seeks to continue growth across all markets. Whether that’s enough, however, may depend on how quickly caller ID can adapt as it moves from standalone apps to the network and the phone itself.