By Consultants Review Team
Apple is in talks with rival mobile OS operator Google to introduce the former's rich communication services (RCS) messaging to Indian mobile phone users this year.
According to the reports, the potential partnership will allow Apple to expand its proprietary bluebubble messaging feature, which is currently only available on iPhones, to Android handsets as well. Such a move could further agitate India's business communications market, which is currently dominated by traditional SMS but where WhatsApp is gaining traction.
"With the current iOS 18.2 version, P2P (person-to-person) RCS is enabled in eight countries—US, Canada, Germany, Spain, France, UK, Belgium, and China," said Inderpal Mumick, CEO of Dotgo, a global RCS platform provider.
"And it is supported by many of the operators in each of these countries who have agreed to provide RCS under the carrier's terms of service. On the back end, Apple and Google collaborated so that the Apple iMessage client runs on Google backend servers that are already integrated into carrier networks," Mumick said.
"Only in China, since Google is not present, carriers have chosen some other vendor servers." In India, Apple is likely to follow Google's lead and integrate with Indian telecom operators Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio, according to senior executives.
Apple, Google, and Jio did not respond to email inquiries. Bharti Airtel has decided not to collaborate with Google for RCS messaging because the alternate encrypted channel could spam users. Airtel has urged the telecom regulator to include OTT (over-the-top) channels in anti-spam regulations.
RCS will not be implemented until Google allows Airtel to use their proprietary tool to identify spam messages.Because Google RCS is an OTT service, it bypasses the Airtel intelligent solution in the same way that all OTT services do," said an Airtel executive who requested anonymity.
To be sure, the planned tripartite backend integration between telcos, Apple, and Google will not have an impact on user experience, as RCS messages will be exchanged over mobile data/Wi-Fi rather than traditional SMS. However, partnerships will be critical when businesses such as banks and e-commerce companies begin to use the channel for official communication. This is known as A2P (application-to-person) messaging, and it is widely used on platforms such as Google, WhatsApp, and SMS.
"Apple's entry into A2P RCS would be a big enabler to grow the RCS ecosystem as it would bring nearly 100 million premium smartphone users which would be the target segment of nearly all D2C businesses," stated the founder of a communications company.
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