As persistent spam complaints have clouded Google’s Wealthy Communication Companies (RCS) push in India, the corporate is popping to deeper provider integration to bolster protections on the platform.
On Sunday, Bharti Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom operator with over 463 million subscribers, mentioned it had partnered with Google to combine the provider’s network-level spam filtering into the RCS ecosystem within the nation. The transfer is geared toward strengthening protections towards undesirable messages and fraud on the platform, the businesses mentioned.
India has emerged as a very difficult market for spam and fraud throughout messaging channels, pushed by the nation’s huge cell consumer base, speedy development in digital funds, and aggressive enterprise advertising practices. In 2022, complaints about unsolicited adverts on Google’s RCS — delivered primarily by means of the Google Messages app — have been vital sufficient to immediate the corporate to briefly pause enterprise promotions on the platform in India. Nonetheless, some customers proceed to report frustration with spam messages on Google Messages, suggesting the challenge has not totally abated.
Airtel mentioned it had been cautious about deeper alignment with Google’s RCS till site visitors might be routed by means of its personal spam controls, highlighting provider considerations about rising fraud dangers.
“We had not onboarded Google as a result of we first needed RCS messages to be routed by means of the Airtel spam filter,” an Airtel spokesperson mentioned.
Underneath the partnership, Airtel’s community intelligence shall be mixed with Google’s RCS platform to allow real-time checks on enterprise messaging, together with sender verification, spam detection, and enforcement of customers’ do-not-disturb preferences. Airtel described the transfer as a “world first” for integrating a telecom operator’s spam filtering straight into an over-the-top messaging platform, although the businesses didn’t present comparative particulars.
“We’re dedicated to persevering with to work with the broader ecosystem of carriers to create a constant and trusted messaging expertise for RCS customers around the globe,” Sameer Samat, president of Android ecosystem at Google, mentioned in an announcement. The remark indicators the corporate could look to increase the mannequin past India as it really works to standardize safety throughout the RCS ecosystem.
Techcrunch occasion
San Francisco, CA
|
October 13-15, 2026
India represents a essential marketplace for Google’s messaging ambitions, with greater than a billion web customers and over 700 million smartphone customers. The nation can be residence to over 853 million WhatsApp customers, in response to World Inhabitants Overview, underlining the size of competitors in cell messaging.
Prabhu Ram, vp for the business analysis group at CyberMedia Analysis, mentioned the deeper provider integration displays efforts to plug longstanding weaknesses in wealthy messaging ecosystems which have been susceptible to spam and fraud.
“The efficacy of this partnership ought to be mirrored in metrics akin to reductions in spam quantity, consumer complaints, and fraud incidence, in addition to enhancements in engagement with reliable messages,” Ram advised TechCrunch.
Airtel has been stepping up its anti-spam efforts over the previous yr, saying its AI-led methods have blocked greater than 71 billion spam calls and a pair of.9 billion spam messages, serving to drive an almost 69% drop in fraud-related monetary losses on its community.
Extra broadly, Google has been positioning RCS because the successor to SMS, saying in Could 2025 that the usual was dealing with greater than a billion messages day by day within the U.S., based mostly on a 28-day common.
Google didn’t say whether or not comparable provider integrations are deliberate for different markets or present estimates for the way a lot the transfer may scale back spam and fraud.
