Google looks to tackle longstanding RCS spam in India — but not alone

As persistent spam complaints have clouded Google’s Rich Communication Services push in India, the company is turning to deeper carrier integration to bolster protections on the platform. On Sunday, Bharti Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom operator with over 463 million subscribers, said it had partnered with Google to integrate the carrier’s network-level spam filtering into the RCS ecosystem in the country. The move is aimed at strengthening protections against unwanted messages and fraud on the platform, the companies said. India has emerged as a particularly challenging market for spam and fraud across messaging channels, driven by the country’s vast mobile user base, rapid growth in digital payments, and aggressive enterprise marketing practices. In 2022, complaints about unsolicited ads on Google’s RCS — delivered primarily through the Google Messages app — were significant enough to prompt the company to temporarily pause business promotions on the platform in India. However, some users continue to report frustration with spam messages on Google Messages, suggesting the issue has not fully abated . Airtel said it had been cautious about deeper alignment with Google’s RCS until traffic could be routed through its own spam controls, highlighting carrier concerns about rising fraud risks. “We had not onboarded Google because we first wanted RCS messages to be routed through the Airtel spam filter,” an Airtel spokesperson said. Under the partnership, Airtel’s network intelligence will be combined with Google’s RCS platform to enable real-time checks on business messaging, including sender verification, spam detection, and enforcement of users’ do-not-disturb preferences. Airtel described the move as a “global first” for integrating a telecom operator’s spam filtering directly into an over-the-top messaging platform, though the companies did not provide comparative details. “We are committed to continuing to work with the broader ecosystem of carriers to crea...