Google Messages users in India have reported receiving a number of unwanted ads in recent weeks using Rich Communication Services (RCS). As a response strategy, Google has turned them all off.
Google spokesperson Kaori Miyake confirmed that Google has disabled the feature in India. “We are aware that some businesses are abusing our anti-spam policies to send promotional messages to users in India. We are disabling this feature in India while we work with the industry to improve the experience for users.”
The ads were delivered by way of RCS’ business messaging feature. The feature allows verified businesses to send messages to customers that go beyond a typical text, with images and interactive features. Google sees this feature as a way for brands to communicate with established customers — messages you might actually want on your phone.
But people using RCS in India have been seeing frequent messages coming in from businesses pushing credit cards and gambling apps, among other things.
Until now, people reported that the only way to avoid the onslaught of ads was to turn off RCS altogether — not an ideal experience. Google’s move to turn off business messaging is a better alternative in the short term. But it is clearly not a long-term fix.
In 2019, Android Messages product management director Sanaz Ahari said that the company’s vision for RCS was “a great, simple user experience that just works for every Android user.” RCS has come a long way since then, but there’s obviously still some work to do.
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