Airtel and Google Introduce Advanced RCS Messaging to Boost Business Communication and Enhance User Safety in India

Bharti Airtel revealed an official partnership with Google to deliver Rich Communication Services (RCS) to its network, signalling a significant shift in India's messaging environment. After nearly a year of holding off amid concerns about spam and data misuse, Airtel has finally agreed to combine Google's RCS technology with its own AI-powered spam control system.  The deal positions telecom providers in India are ready to offer next-generation messaging.

RCS is generally referred to as SMS's modern upgrade, with capabilities like as read receipts, group chats, high-quality media sharing, location sharing, and encrypted conversations. The idea is to create a universal messaging standard integrated directly into the phone's default messaging app, providing consumers with an experience similar to WhatsApp or iMessage but regulated by telecom companies rather than third-party apps.

As per the reports, Airtel will charge businesses Rs 0.11 per RCS message, with an 80:20 revenue share with Google. This new price arrangement follows Google's agreement to integrate RCS communications with Airtel's own spam-filtering technology, answering the telco's concern that RCS might become a substitute for unsolicited commercial texts.

With this collaboration, India now has an unified RCS ecosystem. Experts believe this prepares the way for a significant challenge to WhatsApp's dominance in commercial messaging. The next major step for the industry will be to enable off-net RCS interoperability, which would allow communications to transit effortlessly between different operators' networks. This could result in a new interconnect usage charge (IUC), similar to how existing SMS networks work.

RCS, developed by the global telecom authority GSMA, has been present since 2007, but it only gained popularity after Google enabled it through its Google Messages app in 2019. Today, Google Messages sends over 1 billion RCS messages per day, making it the largest global supporter of the standard. The sector is predicted to increase from $1.01 billion in 2025 to more than $3 billion by 2030, led by rapid use of business messaging. 

With Airtel on board, RCS is set for enormous growth in India, bringing richer, safer, and more interactive messaging to millions of users and altering the country's digital communication future. As RCS use grows, users can anticipate smarter, more secure, and engaging communication embedded right into their handsets. With all major telecoms aligned, India has the potential to become one of the world's fastest-growing marketplaces for next-generation messaging technologies.

Information referenced in this article is from The Economic Times