In response to persistent spam complaints affecting Google’s Rich Communication Services (RCS) in India, the company is enhancing carrier integration to improve security. On Sunday, Bharti Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom operator with over 463 million subscribers, announced its partnership with Google to incorporate its network-level spam filtering into India’s RCS platform. This collaboration aims to enhance protection against spam and fraud.
India presents a challenging market for spam and fraud across messaging platforms due to its large mobile user base, growth in digital payments, and intense marketing practices. In 2022, Google had to pause business promotions on RCS in India after significant spam complaints. Despite these efforts, some users remain frustrated with spam on Google Messages.
Airtel was hesitant to deepen its integration with Google’s RCS until messages could be directed through its own spam filters, addressing carrier concerns about fraud risks. “We had not onboarded Google because we first wanted RCS messages to be routed through the Airtel spam filter,” an Airtel spokesperson noted.
The partnership merges Airtel’s network intelligence with Google’s RCS platform to facilitate real-time checks on business messaging, including sender verification, spam identification, and user do-not-disturb enforcement. Airtel claims this is a “global first” for incorporating telecom spam filtering into an over-the-top messaging service.
“We are committed to continuing to work with the broader ecosystem of carriers to create a consistent and trusted messaging experience for RCS users around the world,” stated Sameer Samat, president of Android ecosystem at Google, suggesting plans to extend this model beyond India.
India is a key market for Google’s messaging efforts, with over a billion internet users and more than 700 million smartphone owners, alongside around 853 million WhatsApp users, highlighting the competitive mobile messaging landscape.
Prabhu Ram, vice president at CyberMedia Research, indicated that the carrier integration addresses vulnerabilities in rich messaging systems prone to spam and fraud. “The efficacy of this partnership should be reflected in metrics such as reductions in spam volume, user complaints, and fraud incidence, as well as improvements in engagement with legitimate messages,” Ram told TechCrunch.
Airtel has intensified its anti-spam initiatives over the past year, with AI-driven systems blocking over 71 billion spam calls and 2.9 billion spam messages, significantly reducing fraud-related financial losses by nearly 69%.
Overall, Google is positioning RCS as the replacement for SMS, reporting in May 2025 that the standard accounts for more than a billion daily messages in the U.S., based on a 28-day average.
Google has not disclosed whether it plans similar carrier integrations in other markets or provided estimates on the potential reduction in spam and fraud.