Airtel, Google partner to make RCS messaging safer in India
01 Mar 2026

Bharti Airtel and Google have announced a partnership to provide a safe and engaging messaging experience for millions of users in India.

The collaboration combines Airtel's network intelligence with Google's Rich Communications Services (RCS) platform and spam filtering capabilities.

This will allow users to enjoy high-quality photos, videos, and interactive elements like message reactions while benefiting from enhanced protections against mobile spam and digital fraud.

RCS messaging service will offer advanced real-time checks
Security measures

The RCS messaging service will offer advanced real-time checks to verify the identity of message senders using telco-backed business identity checks.

It will also respect users' Do Not Disturb (DND) preferences by categorizing communications as promotional or transactional and imposing restrictions accordingly.

The platform will block spam business messages from reaching customers' devices and filter malicious domains through a multi-tiered threat detection layer.

Throttling messages from individual senders
User protection

The platform will also protect users by throttling messages from individual senders who have been flagged by Google and Airtel's AI-powered spam filters.

The messages sent through the RCS messaging service can be directly viewed in Google Messages, which is available on most Android phones.

"In a pioneering initiative, we have now partnered with Google to extend customer protection beyond the telco domain," said Bharti Airtel's Executive Vice Chairman Gopal Vittal.

Airtel has blocked 71B spam calls, 2.9B spam SMSes
Ongoing battle

Over the last 1.5 years, Airtel has been at the forefront of India's battle against spam and digital fraud with a series of AI-powered initiatives.

These efforts have led to blocking 71 billion spam calls and 2.9 billion spam SMSes so far, resulting in a whopping 68.7% decrease in financial losses on its network.

However, a major protection gap still exists within the digital ecosystem due to non-telco communication platforms lacking safety standards and safeguards against financial frauds/invasive spams.

Setting a new standard for secure carrier-backed messaging service
Filling the gap

The innovative partnership between Airtel and Google seeks to fill this protection gap by extending telecom-grade safeguards to the modern messaging experience.

By integrating Airtel's intelligence into the RCS platform with Google's existing spam protections, they are setting a new standard for a secure carrier-backed messaging service.

This collaboration is a major step toward making digital communication safer for millions of Indians.