India's Bharti Airtel, Google to launch advanced chat messaging

Bharti Airtel has entered into an agreement with Google to launch rich communication services (RCS) messaging on its network in India.

Airtel is the country’s second-largest telecom operator.

The companies will roll out RCS using Google’s platform, after previously not collaborating on this service for over a year.

Airtel will charge 0.11 rupee (US$0.00123) per RCS message, with revenue shared 80:20 between Airtel and Google, according to industry sources.

Airtel is working with Google to ensure RCS messages are filtered by its AI-powered spam detection system before full implementation.

Google has agreed to integrate RCS with Airtel’s spam filter, which contributed to the new partnership.

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Airtel prices RCS at Rs 0.11 per message. That sits between free P2P apps like WhatsApp or Telegram and paid A2P SMS. Brands may hesitate to shift large volumes to RCS Business Messaging. P2P is free for users, and A2P covers paid notifications and marketing.
An 80:20 split with Google leaves Airtel with Rs 0.088 per message before costs.
India and China may carry 30% of global RCS business traffic in 2025 1. RCS needs to take a solid slice of India’s forecasted $544 million A2P RCS market by 2029 2 or brands will stay on WhatsApp for Business, which saw a 41% rise in marketing use 3.

All three Indian carriers now support RCS. Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) players such as Gupshup, Infobip, and Route Mobile 4 can offer RCS Business Messaging at national scale to brands that want carrier-native rich messaging.
For marketing tech vendors, RCS rich cards, interactive product or offer tiles inside a chat, delivered up to 70% higher conversion than Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) and two to three times higher than standard marketing channels 3. That appeals to e-commerce and fintech clients in India.
Carriers plan interoperability talks to exchange RCS traffic across networks. Aggregators can act as a neutral integration layer, since Google’s RCS partners 5 4 help brands navigate carrier ties while avoiding direct interconnect complexity.