VNS-RBM team handles the Business Verification and Agent Validation for VNS who has launched the RCS Business Messaging service for delivery to RCS users in India. To ensure that the RCS users in India have a safe and positive experience when interacting with brands, VNS-RBM team, acting on behalf of VNS, and with the approval of VNS, has specified the policies for business communication over RCS (“RBM Policies”). These policies also provide a guideline of restricted content and prohibited behaviors. These policies may be further refined in collaboration with VNS.
VNS-RBM team and VNS reserve the right to modify the RBM Policies at any time. VNS-RBM team, acting on behalf of VNS, will exercise its discretion in the interpretation and enforcement of these policies in conjunction with the Terms of Service.
This document is targeted for businesses and developers who wish to launch their Agents for users in India via the VNS RBM Portal, which is provided and managed by VNS-RBM team. Please follow these policies and guidelines while developing your Agents.
“Agent” or “RBM Agent” means a bot that communicates with the User via RBM.
“Agent Assets” means some or all of Agent Name, Short Description, Long Description, TOS URL, Privacy Policy URL, Contact Info (Phone, Email, Website URL), Brand Logo, Banner Image, and Agent Screenshots.
"Agent Logo” means a 224 x 224 pixel image, no larger than 50 KB, that acts as the identity of the Brand/RBM Agent. The Brand Logo is displayed next to each text message in the Chat Thread. The Agent Logo is also overlayed on the Banner Image on the Info & Options Page.
“Agent Name” is the name for an Agent. It is a string between 1 and 40 characters. It is the Sender ID of the Chat Thread.
“Agent Screenshots” are 2 – 8 images showing exactly what End Users see on their mobile devices while using the Agent inside Messages. Agent Screenshots must include one image of the Bot & Info Page of the Agent. The Agent Screenshots are used during verification and are visible to End Users on the Bot Store.
"Agent Use Case” means one of (a) OTP, (b) Transactional, and (c) Promotional use case assigned to the Agent, for application of business rules.
“Banner Image” is a 1440 x 448 pixel image, no larger than 200 KB, with an aspect ratio (45:14), that is displayed in the upper part of the Info & Options Page, behind the Agent Logo.
“Brand” is a product or service that is publicly distinguished from other products, services, or concepts. Every Agent must be assigned to a Brand. A Brand belongs to an Enterprise.
"Brand Name” means the name of the Brand. It is an alphanumeric string between 1 and 128 characters. Every Brand must have a unique Brand Name. Brand Name is entered on the VNS-RBM team Platform and is visible to the Developer. Brand Name is not visible to the End User.
“Bot ID” is an internal ID on VNS-RBM team platform that is used to identify every Agent. Every Agent has a unique Bot ID. Bot ID is NOT visible to the End User on Messages.
“Chat Thread” is a conversation between the Agent and the End User.
“Contact Info” means the Phone number, Email address, and Website URL for the Agent, that will be visible to the End User under the Info tab on the Info & Options Page.
“Developer” means the aggregator who is developing and launching Agents on behalf of the Brands.
“End User” or “User” is the user with the Messages app on the Android device.
“Enterprise” is an entity, e.g., a corporation that owns one or more brands.
Info & Options Page is the screen displayed in the Messages app when clicking on the Agent Name in the Chat Thread. The Info & Options Page includes two tabs. The Info tab shows the contacts for the Agent including the Phone Number, Email and Website. The Options tab includes options to view the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service for the Agent and the option to block or report spam.
“Launched Agent” means an Agent that has been verified and is allowed to send and/or receive RCS messages to End Users.
“Long Description” a string between 1 and 3000 characters. The Long Description is used during verification and is visible to End Users on the Bot Store.
“Messages” or “Android Messages” is the Messages app by Google, that is pre-installed on Android devices, and is the default SMS app for Android devices.
“Privacy Policy URL” is the URL pointing to the privacy policy under which the Brand offers the Agent to End Users and is visible to users under the Options tab of the Info and Options page. Privacy policy tells End Users how and why the Brand is collecting their information. It spells out how the Brand may use the data, why the Brand uses it, and if the data is shared with others.
“Promotion Initiation Hours” means 10 am – 9pm (7 days a week).
“RBM” means RCS Business Messaging.
“Short Description” a string between 1 and 100 characters. It is shown on the Info & Options Page to the user.
“Terms of Service URL” is the URL pointing to the terms of service under which the Brand offers the Agent to End Users and is visible to users under the Options tab of the Info and Options page.
“VNS” means Virtuoso Netsoft Pvt Ltd, a company incorporated under the laws of India having its registered address at 3rd Floor, Netsmartz House,Plot No 10,Rajiv Gandhi IT Park Chandigarh, Chandigarh – 160101, India.
“VNS RBM portal” means the portal provided to CPaaS providers or Aggregators or Developers by VNS for onboarding, Agent creation, Template creation and reports download. Link to the portal is https://virtuosorbm.com/
RBM Agents enable one-way A2P (Application to Person) or two-way conversational messaging (A2P and P2A) between Brands and End Users. Agents can use any of the RCS advanced messaging services, including animated or static images, audio, video, suggested replies, and suggested action buttons. Please see the whitepaper titled “Revolutionize Business Messaging with RCS”, available here, free of cost, for an introduction to RCS Business Messaging.
This section defines the guidelines for the Agent Assets to submitted.
Developers can use any name (up to 40 Characters) for their Agent keeping in mind its association with the Brand. The Agent Name can be a catchy phrase or a simple name. Each Launched needs to have a unique name, different from the Agent Name of any other Launched Agent. Duplicate names will not be accepted.
The Short Description (up to 100 Characters) of the Agent is the text shown on the Info & Options Page just below the Agent name. This should primarily indicate the main use case of the Agent. Any description which misleads the user about the primary use case of the Agent will not be accepted.
The Bot Logo is a 224 x 224 pixel image no larger than 90 KB that acts as the identity of the Brand/RBM Agent. It is shown on the bot’s chat tile, conversation screen and info page. The user should be able to associate to the brand with the RBM Agents logo. The logo of the agent needs to adhere to the brand’s guidelines. The logo must not belong to another brand or be trademarked/owned by another brand. Any logo that is misleading the user about the brands association with the Agent will not be accepted.
The Banner Image is a 1440 x 448 pixel image, no larger than 200 KB, that is shown in the Info & Options Page. This can be any image adhering to the brands branding guidelines. It can depict the Agents use case, promotional offers, tag lines etc. The Brand must have rights to the image. The image must not belong to another Brand or be trademarked/owned by another Brand. Any image that is misleading the End User about the Brands association with the Agent will not be accepted.
The long description of the Agent will be used during verification process and shown on the Agent’s Bot Store Listing. This description is a space to elaborate on the use case of the Agent. Developers/Marketers can explain in detail the bot’s functionality, list its promotional offers, details of the brand, provide a support URL etc.
Any Long Description that misleads the user about the brand or the functionality will not be accepted.
The Agent Screenshots are used for verification and shown on the Agent’s Bot Store listing. The Agent Screenshots let End Users see how the Agent looks and feels and help the End User understand the Agents functionalities.
The screenshots should only have the screens of the Agent as seen inside the Messages app on a mobile device. These screens should correctly capture the different functions of the agent and should be the same as seen in the Agent.
The minimum number of screenshots to be submitted is 2, and the maximum is 8. Its recommended that the screenshots include one screenshot of the Info & Options Page of the Agent.
Use cases provide Agent insights and provide customized application of business rules. These use cases fulfill specific functions for End Users and help ensure the Agent has appropriate business rules applied. Every Agent is required to have an Agent Use Case assigned to it. Please choose the Agent Use Case carefully, as it cannot be changed after the Agent is launched.
The following three Agent Use Cases are supported for Agents to be launched in India.
The business rules applicable for Promotional Agents are listed in the following section.
The business rules in India for the three use cases are summarized in the table below for convenience.
Agent Use Case | 'Block & report' shown in conversation? | Business rules - applicable in India |
---|---|---|
OTP | No | None |
Transactional | Yes | None |
Promotional | Yes |
Time of day: Brands should initiate conversations only during 10am - 9pm (7 days a week)
Message limits: Four (4) A2P messages per brand per user per month, subsequent messages will result in an error.
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Please go here for more details.
Every Agent needs to be associated to a Brand. A Brand is a name or trademark that identifies a product/service or provider of the product/service. The Agent is associated with branding and business information such as colors, images, and contact information. As the Agent is the direct medium for the users to interact with the Brand there should be no ambiguity in the Brands identity. Any misinformation about the Brand will not be accepted.
Each Brand must have a unique Brand Name. Variations of Brand Names are not permitted. (e.g., 724, The 724, 724 Ltd, a 724, are variations of a single Brand Name, an only one of these can be used) Brands are not permitted bypass the Business Rules for Promotional Agents specified in Section 3.8 by using different Brand Names to register different Agents.
The Brand website should be the official online presence of the brand.
The Developer Name is the name of the entity that has developed the Agent - this can be any third-party developer or the Brand itself. The Developer Name is used for verification, reporting, billing, and, if desired, for the Bot Store listing. The Developer Name is not visible to users in the Messages app.
Brands need to provide a logo, identify the industry type they belong to and provide a set of identification documents of the Enterprise who owns the Brand, along with the Brand’s Point of Contact with official contact email as part of submitting the Agent and Brand for verification. Two of the following documents are required for verification of business -
Each Agent is linked to a Brand and a Brand can have multiple Agents associated with it. The following conditions apply when onboarding and launching Agents.
Scenario | Policy | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|
1. | A Brand can have different Agents for different Agent Use Cases (e.g., for OTP, Promo, Transactional) | Yes | A Brand must have different Agents for different Agent Use Cases (e.g., for OTP, Promo, Transactional) |
2. | Launched Agents can have duplicate Agent Names. | No | Agent Names of Launched Agents must be unique. Agent Names are checked for uniqueness at time of verification. |
3. | Agents can have duplicate Agent Names at time of creation. | Yes | Agent Names are checked for uniqueness at time of verification. Thus, prior to submission of an Agent for verification, the Agent may have a name duplicated with any launched or unlaunched Agent. The Developer will be informed about the conflict during the verification process. |
4. | The Agents for different Agent Use Cases belonging to a single Brand can have the same Agent Names | No | Each Launched Agent must have a unique Agent Name. Thus, if a Brand has different launched Agents for different Agent Use Cases, each Agent must be given a different Agent Name. e.g., Kotak, Kotak OTP, Kotak Offers. |
5. | A Brand can use variants of its brand name (e.g., Kotak, Kotak Company, The Kotak, Kotak WIN, KOTAK A) when launching different Agents | No |
The same brand name needs to be used for all agents. E.g., Kotak for all agents. If Agents are submitted with Brand Name variants, they will either be rejected, or be normalized to a common Brand Name, and be subject to the four (4) A2P messages per End User per month across all the Promotional Agents. |
6. | An Enterprise can have multiple Brands that do not share a common word (e.g., Pepsodent, Dove, Closeup as examples of separate brands from Unilever; Chroma, Titan, Air India, Air Vistara as four separate brands from Tata Group) | Yes | Each Brand of an Enterprise will be subject to separate Business Rules for Promotional Agents (4 A2P messages per Brand per End User per month) |
7. | An Enterprise can have multiple Brands that share some common words as long as they are distinct brands (e.g., Tata Steel, Tata Tea, Tata Communications Services as separate brands from Tata Group; Kotak Bank, Kotak Insurance, Kotak Securities, Kotak AMC, Kotak Mahindra Investments as example of multiple separate brands from Kotak) | Yes | Each Brand of an Enterprise will be subject to separate Business Rules for Promotional Agents (4 A2P messages per Brand per End User per month) |
8. | Two different brands have the same Agent Name for launched Agents (e.g., Kotak and HDFC both have agents with Agent Name = “Bank”, or Agent Name = "Interest Rates"; or Marriott and Taj both have agents with Agent Name = “Flowers”) | No | Each launched Agent must have a unique Agent Name, so two different launched Agents belonging to two different brands cannot have the same Agent Names. |
9. | Two Agents from the same Brand have the same Agent Name | No | Each Agent must have a unique Agent name, so two different Agents belonging to the same Brand cannot have the same Agent Names. |
10. | Multiple Agents of a Brand can use the same Agent Logo and Banner Image | Yes | Provided the logo and banner image meet the criteria for Agent Assets |
11. | Multiple Agents of a Brand can use the same Agent Logo but different Banner Image | Yes | Provided the logo and banner image meet the criteria for Agent Assets |
12. | A Brand can use variants of its Brand’s Logo as its Agent Logo when launching different Agents | Yes | Provided the logo meets the criteria for Agent Assets |
13. | The Agent Name for an Agent can be changed after launch of the Agent | No | The Agent Name cannot be changed after launch. The Agent Name can only be changed prior to submission for verification. |
14. | The Agent Logo and Banner Image can be changed after launch of the Agent. | No | The Agent Logo and Banner Image cannot be changed after launch. The Agent Logo and Banner Image can only be changed prior to submission for verification. |
15. | The Agent Use Case can be changed after launch of the Agent. | No | The Agent Use case cannot be changed after launch. The Agent Use case can only be changed prior to submission for verification. |
16. | A Brand can migrate from one developer to another (Portability) | Yes | A brand can request, through its new developer, to migrate from an existing developer to a new developer. |
17. | Different Brands of an Enterprise can use different Developers to launch Agents | Yes | Different Brands for an Enterprise can work with different Developers, |
18. | One Brand of an Enterprise can use different Developers to launch Agents | No | All Agents for a single Brand must be launched with the same Developer |
Each Brand has full choice and freedom to work with any Developer of their choice, or even to move from one Developer to another (example, for better service, better price, or as result of M&A). The process of moving Developers is to be initiated by the new Developer (NewD) chosen by the Brand and involves a rigorous verification process to ensure the move is legitimate.
The portability process for moving a Brand’s Agents from its current Developer (CurD) to a NewD is as follows:
Opt-in is the process of getting consent from Users before sending them messages.
When submitting an agent for verification, the Developers must provide information indicating how the business gets the opt-in from the End Users. This could be via a paper form, an online form, registration, or sign-in, wherein the End User explicitly accepts terms of service which includes the clauses for receiving information from the Enterprise and/or the Brand.
Here are some examples of what you can submit as a proof of Opt-in from the user
Note:
All agents must comply with an End User’s request to opt-out (e.g., by sending “STOP” message or equivalent in Agent’s language) and be able to promptly process and adhere to the End Users’ request to opt-out. Developers must implement an opt out functionality in the Agent. This should be explicitly shown in the Agent’s flow. Once the user selects opt-out he should not receive any further A2P messages from the Agent.
The keyword used for Opt-out is to be provided by Developers as part of the verification process. “STOP” and any additional keywords supported for Opt-out should be included when submitting the Agent for verification.
The VNS-RBM team platform also provides help for implementing Stop. The default keyword to opt-out is STOP. The default keyword to cancel the opt-out is START.
It is recommended that Developers implement functionality to respond to P2A messages from End Users, wherein the Agent responds to certain keywords, e.g., HI, START, MENU, HELP. Responding to P2A messages is optional. If a response to P2A messages is supported, a response to the keyword “HI” is required. Support for other keywords is optional.
Developers should also implement standard commands like RESTART and HELP/MENU. Agents should support restarting of conversations by welcoming the End User with an initial message that lists the standard commands and options End Users can choose to take the conversation forward. These are optional.
To ensure that you do not spam or facilitate transmission of spam, please follow the guidelines below:
Do not misuse RBM. We want RBM to be useful, relevant, and safe for users, thus we do not allow the following:
Users should not feel misled by RBM content, and that means Agents should be upfront, honest, and provide them with the information that they need to make informed decisions. RBM content must not represent you or your products or services in a way that is not accurate, realistic, and truthful. For example, the Agents must not:
Don’t use obscene, profane, or offensive language, or nonsensical content that carries no actual meaning.
To facilitate high quality user experiences, do ensure that your content conforms with the editorial and professional standards as follow:
Our content policies are categorized into two groups: Prohibited content and Restricted content.
We forbid businesses that operate, feature, or involve with Prohibited content.
You may not a) exclusively promote products or services in Restricted Content areas or (b) send promotional updates, advertisement, or commercial content that exclusively promote the Restricted content using RBM. You may promote products or services in Restricted content areas using RBM if such promotion takes place as part of promoting a wider set of products or services. Always remember to comply with your local laws and regulations.
You may send OTPs for companies dealing with Restricted content and have conversational agents that respond to user-initiated messages.
RBM does not support unlawful, offensive, or inappropriate content. This is a non-exhaustive list of content we do not allow:
Agents cannot send advertisements, or promotional content that are related to restricted content. OTP and Transactional messages related to restricted content can be sent. Agents are allowed to respond to P2A messages that relate to restricted content, provided it is clear to the user that restricted content will be sent. Below is a non-exhaustive list of restricted content categories:
Depending on how egregious a violation is, VNS-RBM team and VNS may respond in several different ways. Below is a list of various ways we enforce policies.
VNS-RBM team verifies all Agent details when the developer submits agents for launch. The request for launch is rejected if the Agent violates any of the requirements and the Developer is notified over email.
Developers can resubmit the Agent for launch once the problem is fixed.
VNS-RBM team may suspend RBM services on Launched Agents that violate RBM policies. This means that the Agents can no longer use RBM services until the problem is fixed and passed a policy review.
We may suspend your account if you have several violations or a serious violation. If this happens, all Agents from your account will be disabled. Any related accounts, including your new account, may be automatically suspended. We may report any illegal activity if required by law.
The Agent should be submitted for verification and launch by the Developer upon successful completion of the testing of the Agent. As part of verification, we check the following:
Subject: VI RBM: Please approve brand use for RCS Business Messaging
To: [ BRAND POC ]
Hi [ BRAND POC ],
[DEVELOPER] has registered an RCS Business Messaging (RBM) agent with VNS RBM on behalf of your company. Registration allows [DEVELOPER] to send messages on behalf of your company to users that are reachable from VNS RBM Platform.
We have received a request from [DEVELOPER] to launch this agent, which has the following information:
Agent name: [
AGENT NAME
]
Agent logo: [
AGENT LOGO URL
]
Agent hero image: [
AGENT HERO IMAGE URL
]
Agent description: [
AGENT DESCRIPTION
]
Contact Person at [
DEVELOPER
] :
Terms of service: [
TOS URL
]
Privacy policy: [
PRIVACY POLICY URL
]
Agent ID: [
AGENT ID
]
Your approval is required in order to
(a) validate the correctness of the information above, and
(b) confirm that [DEVELOPER] has the right to control an RBM agent that represents your brand. We would like to obtain your approval to continue the launch.
To grant your approval, respond with the following: “I, [BRAND POC] as a company representative, grant [DEVELOPER] the right to operate an RCS Business Messaging agent using the information specified in this email.”
Feel free to reach out to us at rbm.virtuosonetsoft@virtuosonetsoft.in for any queries!
Thanks,
THE VNS-RBM TEAM