Google RBM (Jibe)

What Jibe is

Jibe is Google's RCS platform. It is what most mobile operators outside of a few large in-house carriers use as their MaaP layer. It is also the infrastructure that powers Google's RBM program, which is how brands get verified, manage agents, and send rich messages to Android users.

In practice, when a brand sends an RBM message to an Android phone, the message flows through a partner CPaaS, into Jibe, out to the carrier, and onto the device.

Why Jibe matters strategically

A few years ago, Jibe was Google's hedge: if carriers built MaaP themselves, Jibe was a fallback; if they did not, Jibe was the default. The market answered, and Jibe is now the dominant MaaP backend globally. That has consequences:

• The brand verification and agent flow is largely standardized through Google
• Capability checks, feature support, and rendering are increasingly consistent across carriers
• New RCS features (encryption, advanced rich content, better discovery) ship from Google through Jibe and reach the entire connected operator ecosystem at once

What Jibe handles

• Agent registration and verification for RBM brands
• Capability discovery (does this MSISDN support RCS, and which features)
• Message routing between brand agents and end users
• Delivery and read receipt reporting
• Brand asset hosting (logos, banners, profile content)
• Compliance enforcement and abuse prevention

What it does not handle

Jibe is the MaaP and identity layer. It is not the consumer messages app (that is Google Messages on Android), not the AI agent layer (that is the brand's own platform), and not the carrier interconnect (that is held by aggregators). Brands almost never integrate with Jibe directly; they go through a CPaaS that holds the connection.

The Apple side

For iOS, Apple does not use Jibe. iPhone RCS runs through the carrier's RCS infrastructure plus Apple's own implementation in iOS 18 and later. A verified RCS for Business agent reaches iPhones on iOS 18 and later through supported carriers. Apple Messages for Business is a separate, optional Apple program with its own registration.