Google’s messaging service RCS or Rich Communication Services is a popularly used tool for messaging across the world. For those unaware, RCS is Google’s answer to Apple’s iMessage. In India, RCS users were facing a unusual issue , being spammed by ads and promotional content by businesses. There have been reports of companies using the platform to spam users. The major issue compounded the problem is the ‘Verified Business’ label appearing on these messages.

Google seems to have acknowledged the issue. In a statement to Android Authority, the tech giant mentioned that it is pausing the RCS for businesses in India. This means that businesses in India will not be able to use Google Messages to send ads to other promotional material, at least for the time being.

“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,” Google told the website.

Incidentally, the feature is available worldwide ,and so far Google has not faced such an issue anywhere.

For now, Google has disabled the feature for businesses and has assured that it will be working with the industry to improve the experience for users. Though at the moment it is not clear how the company is planning to combat the issue, the fact that messages pass through Google’s Jibe Cloud platform gives it an advantage. As this may help Google integrate smap detection and other similar features in the product itself.