Hyderabad, July 11 -- Bharti Airtel's partnership with Google finally brought Rich Communication Services (RCS) to its network on March 1, ending years of resistance over spam and fraud concerns. But three months on, one group of Airtel customers remains left out: iPhone users.

While Airtel subscribers on Android can use RCS through Google Messages, there is no confirmed RCS support for iPhone customers. Reliance Jio, by contrast, was reported to have reached an RCS deal with Apple as early as August 2025. The gap raises a straightforward question: why is Airtel's RCS rollout Android-only?

What RCS is, and is not

RCS is a GSMA-backed messaging standard. It upgrades the legacy SMS experience with read receipts, typing indicators, high-r...