Truecaller is one of the world’s most widely used caller identification platforms, with more than 500 million users. Now it’s entering a more challenging phase as growth slows in its largest market and competition intensifies across telecom networks and smartphone platforms.

Much of Truecaller’s growth has been driven by India, which accounts for over 350 million users, or about 70% of its global base. The volume of spam and unwanted calls has turned the app from a simple caller ID service into a more embedded layer of everyday communication.

That position is now shaping its next phase. The company has introduced features such as AI Assistant and Family Protection to drive monetization, alongside tools like Community Suggestions to stay relevant as competition intensifies. This comes as telecom-led solutions such as Calling Name Presentation (CNAP), dedicated number series for verified business calls, and AI-based spam protection gain 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 increases, Truecaller’s growth is starting to slow. Data shared with TechCrunch from Sensor Tower shows downloads from India fell 16% year-over-year in 2025, while global downloads declined 5%, marking a reversal after several years of growth. Separate data from Appfigures shows downloads peaked at 175 million in 2021, dropped sharply in 2022 and have since hovered around 120 million annually.

Image Credits:Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch

India remains Truecaller’s largest market, but its share of downloads has declined from over 70% at its peak to the mid-50s in recent years, pointing to 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 2021 IPO and are down around 37% so far this year, underscoring investor concerns about its growth outlook and business model. Chief Executive Rishit Jhunjhunwala told TechCrunch that one of the key questions from investors has been around the impact of CNAP in India. He also acknowledged recent headwinds in parts of the business, without elaborating further.

Ads, not CNAP, are the immediate risk

CNAP, an initiative pushed by India’s telecom regulator and is being implemented by telecom operators, displays caller names based on KYC records at the network level without requiring third-party apps. This overlaps with part of Truecaller’s core offering, but is more limited in scope.

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Truecaller’s Jhunjhunwala said the company does not see CNAP as a disruption but as validation of the problem.

“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.”

Truecaller’s Community Suggestions show user-generated context about incoming callersImage Credits:Truecaller

Bharath Nagaraj, director of equity research at Cantor Fitzgerald, said CNAP could slow user growth but is unlikely to materially disrupt Truecaller’s core business in the near term. Instead, he pointed to pressure in the company’s advertising segment — driven in part by changes from Google — as the more immediate 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 last earnings call (PDF), Truecaller said that it lost roughly one-third of ad traffic from its largest partner in August 2025 — a partner analysts on the call identified as Google. Jhunjhunwala attributed the drop to an unresolved “algorithm issue,” while CFO Odd Bolin said the partner still accounts for more than a third of total revenue. The company is now adding new partners and building its own ad exchange to reduce dependence on any single platform.

But even moving to an in-house ad exchange may not fully ad

Truecaller faces mounting pressures as its growth matures