Savvy business leaders know the importance of staying many steps ahead of not only the competition but also the latest technology trends. When it comes to electronic interactions with clientele, that means offering desirable products/services and robust customer support across a variety of digital channels, online platforms, and smartphone apps. Traditional texting can only take you so far with these goals. But Rich Communication Services (RCS), a new messaging protocol, can take your interactivity with customers to the next level.
Several carriers have only started to support RCS in the past year or two, but already there are more than 1 billion monthly active users across more than 100 carriers and partners today, and roughly two-thirds of respondents to a Sinch survey expect RCS to become the preferred messaging platform, emphasizing the growing demand for richer, more engaging mobile communication experiences. Juniper Research expects RCS business messaging traffic to reach 50 billion messages globally this year, up from 33 billion in 2024. And MobileSquared expects the RCS market to grow by 60 percent in the next three years, reaching 350 billion messages annually.
For the uninitiated, RCS is a messaging protocol that upgrades standard messaging apps with features like multimedia sharing, typing indicators, read receipts, and other interactive elements. As a person-to-person messaging protocol, RCS serves as a significant improvement over SMS (short messaging service) and MMS (multimedia messaging service), offering richer and more engaging communication options.
RCS business messaging takes these features a step further, enabling businesses to interact with customers through branded sender IDs, rich media, interactive buttons, carousels, videos, and more. Acting as a more engaging alternative to traditional SMS, RCS operates through a dedicated agent, essentially an interactive chatbot or messaging application using the RCS protocol.
RCS development started in 2007, but initial versions were limited in functionality and lacked interoperability. To address these issues, the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSMA) Universal Profile specification was introduced in 2017 and has been gradually implemented. Google and the GSMA have worked with device manufacturers and major operators around the world, including T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, and Vodafone, to enable and grow an RCS network that connects dozens of operators across at least 60 countries. Initially available on Android devices, RCS became accessible to Apple users with the release of iOS 18 in 2024. With 59 percent of the U.S. mobile market using iOS devices, experts believe Apple’s support of RCS will exponentially grow its usage and adoption domestically.
Differences from SMS/MMS and iMessage
SMS supports plain text only and operates on mobile networks. In contrast, MMS allows users to send multimedia content, such as images, videos, audio, and text, but it often comes with limitations, including lower definition, high costs, and restrictions on media size. Meanwhile, iMessage, exclusive to Apple devices, offers advanced features like multimedia sharing, encryption, and read receipts; it operates over Wi-Fi or mobile data within a closed ecosystem, preventing cross-platform communication with Android devices.
RCS, in contrast, provides a more secure and versatile alternative to SMS and MMS for both users and businesses. SMS and MMS limit businesses to 160 characters of text and basic media, but RCS business messaging can include images, videos, interactive carousels, and integration with apps like maps and wallets. Businesses benefit from branded sender verification, enhanced analytics through delivery reports, and advanced encryption.
“Unlike SMS, where personalization is limited to text, RCS delivers immersive, context-aware experiences that can lead to significantly higher engagement rates. This opens up unique opportunities for businesses with complex customer journeys,” explains tech expert and software engineer David Li.
While comparable to iMessage in multimedia capabilities, RCS is not restricted to a closed ecosystem.
“The features of iMessage and RCS are very similar, but the use cases and experiences for businesses are different,” says Miriam Liszewski, RCS commercial product manager at Sinch, a communications platform company that powers messaging, voice, and email communications between businesses and their customers. “Apple Messages for Business (AMB) can only be initiated by the user; business cannot start a conversation. AMB is designed for moments when customers are ready to connect, whether they’re booking an appointment or seeking support. RCS business messaging, on the other hand, can be triggered by the business and can be used for a wide variety of use cases, including marketing, one-time password and two-factor authentication, notifications, and transactional messages.”
RCS enables businesses to create more interactive content and deliver an enhanced customer experience for users with compatible devices. Alex Campbell, cofounder and chief information officer of Vibes, a mobile marketing platform provider, summarizes RCS’s primary advantages:
- Unified communication platform: RCS combines the best features of SMS, MMS, and mobile apps into one integrated solution, creating a cohesive and versatile communication experience.
- Enhanced customer experience: RCS brings advanced messaging features like read receipts and typing indicators directly to the native messaging app, making interactions feel more authentic. Brands gain better visibility into message engagement, while high-resolution media and interactive buttons enable faster, more engaging conversations.
- Smoother buyer journey: By offering suggested actions and reply buttons, RCS reduces customer effort, allowing users to tap their next step instead of typing, significantly streamlining interactions and transactions.
- Simplified issue resolution: RCS improves customer service by enabling seamless problem solving, such as managing order exchanges or returns, without requiring users to switch to another app.
“For marketers, RCS offers the potential for more engaging and interactive campaigns. For salespeople, it enables richer communication with leads and customers,” notes Priyanshu Dubey, a digital marketing and search engine optimization expert.
According to Liszewski, RCS consistently outperforms other mobile messaging types, driving higher cart values, increased conversions, and greater engagement.
“Businesses using RCS have seen an 80 percent conversion rate in their campaigns and three to seven times higher click-through rates than with rich SMS,” she says. “One of our clients saw a 200 percent increase in click rates with RCS compared to their email campaigns.”
RCS also offers extensive customization options compared to traditional SMS, allowing companies to personalize messages with their logos, colors, brand names, and tailored layouts.
“This makes their branding messages speak for themselves. Customers immediately identify the brand and know its source,” says Nitin Seth, CEO of SMS-Magic. “The custom layouts feature enables marketers to create attractive, different, and eye-catching customized ads, which could also include carousel ads or videos. The interactive ad excites customers to click on the ad and explore it further, thus taking the marketing experience directly into their personal messaging spaces. Once customers get into that receptive zone, product showcases and interactive promotions get the next level of attention. With quick-reply buttons, they feel empowered to take the action of buying or making a purchase.”
Li values how RCS allows businesses to integrate conversational commerce directly into the chat interface and provide a more guided shopping experience.
“A cosmetics brand could use RCS to recommend products based on customer preferences, show real-time product demos, and let customers purchase directly within the message,” Li says.
An often-overlooked feature of RCS is verified sender IDs, which enhance credibility and help reduce phishing risks. Businesses that rely heavily on customer trust, like financial institutions, can use this to build confidence with customers.
“Say you’re a bank that wants to send secure, branded updates about account activity or loan approvals as well as actionable steps embedded within the message. Verified branding reduces customer hesitation, leading to faster interactions,” Li points out.
“Businesses can even enable dynamic troubleshooting within the chat,” he says further, noting that “a telecom company could share network status updates or interactive diagnostics tools through RCS, eliminating the need for a separate app or website. This streamlines resolutions and enhances customer satisfaction.”
Good Candidates for RCS
Restaurant owners could use RCS to share menu updates and direct booking links with customers. Retailers could send promotional messages featuring high-quality product images and “shop now” buttons, showcasing product catalogs directly within messages and allowing customers to explore and purchase without leaving the conversation. Delivery service owners could provide real-time updates with interactive maps. And anyone could even offer real-time customer support within the messaging app, complete with suggested replies and quick access to FAQs.
“RCS will primarily help enterprises that are heavily dependent on customer interaction, like e-commerce platforms and customer service departments,” Seth insists. “A shoe brand with a carousel of new arrivals can direct RCS messages into the messaging space and mobile device of its customer. The rich media ad can include a direct link to their store and a discount code. Or an airline can send boarding passes, airport directions, gate updates, and flight delay notices via RCS.”
Rich Kingly, CEO of Driveway King, a driveway installation provider, uses RCS to send interactive updates to its clients.
“We send an RCS message featuring a photo carousel of design options, a button for clients to schedule the next step, and a payment link. This creates a more engaging, seamless experience compared to traditional SMS/MMS,” he says. “RCS allows our team to include richer media, like high-quality images and videos, and provides valuable features like read receipts. In addition, our sales and customer service teams use these tools to track engagement, ensuring timely follow-ups and better conversion rates.”
Liszewski believes any company that sends two-factor authentication or one-time password messages should consider implementing RCS to help reassure customers that their messages are authentic.
RCS Roadblocks
Businesses eager to adopt RCS need to be aware of several challenges. Among the biggest is a lack of support by all carriers and devices.
“Carrier support, regulatory issues, and platform adoption are some of the geographic constraints that can affect the accessibility and functionality of RCS,” Seth warns. “India, Germany, France, Indonesia, and Mexico are currently the regions with the most active RCS networks; consequently, these countries can have better functionality than the United States.”
Another significant concern is the lack of end-to-end encryption for messages exchanged between Apple and Android devices, leaving them vulnerable to interception. This issue gained prominence after the Salt Typhoon attack in late 2024, which targeted major carriers in one of the largest infrastructure breaches in U.S. history. In response, the FBI has advised Americans to avoid using unencrypted messaging like RCS and only use messaging apps with end-to-end encryption for secure communication. While the GSMA is actively working on implementing such encryption, experts indicate that a solution is still not imminent.
“Although U.S. carriers are still defining their verification protocols, there will be a few layers that will need to be considered from an implementation perspective,” Campbell says. “First, building the agent itself, which may differ depending on whether you want to use RCS for more promotional, marketing-focused interactions vs. more transactional-based interactions, like one-time passwords. Next, getting Apple and Google’s approvals. And third, getting U.S. carrier approvals.”
How to Implement RCS
The good news is that virtually any business can begin sending messages via RCS today. All they need to do is register their RCS sender agent and they can start sending with little to no changes to their existing technologies or processes, Liszewski explains.
“The simplest way for businesses to get started with RCS is to use their existing SMS API to send RCS messages when the device is RCS-capable and use SMS when it’s not,” she says. “This allows them to capitalize on the branded messaging, improved security, and metrics of RCS, and over time they can begin the transition to richer messaging experiences taking advantage of additional RCS features.”
Dubey’s advice for the easiest transitioning is to partner with providers that specialize in RCS and can offer platforms and APIs that enable them to send RCS messages at scale, manage campaigns, and track results.
“Keep in mind that your current systems need to support RCS messaging, so you need to carefully assess compatibility and, accordingly, upgrade your software systems,” Seth recommends. “Additionally, your marketing and sales teams will need to fully understand the workings of new features, such as rich media, read receipt, and real-time interactivity, to effectively leverage RCS in customer outreach. With this data, they will be in a better position to craft personalized and engaging campaigns.”
Ashot Nanayan, founder and CEO of DWI, agrees that training teams to use RCS effectively will be crucial.
“That’s especially true if you plan to design campaigns leveraging RCS’s dynamic engagement potential. Creating a seamless testing and optimization process also ensures your messages deliver the same high-quality experience across supported devices,” Nanayan says.
To create successful targeted campaigns, you also need to carefully capture metrics data.
“Here, creating engaging and creative content becomes important. The chance of conversion is super high, so interactive promotions or customer service messages might be the best bet,” Seth explains. “Then, tracking engagement rates to optimize future communications automatically becomes the next and final step.”
The Forecast Ahead
Most experts think RCS is on the cusp of incredible growth to come, although RCS business messaging integration might trail behind a bit.
“The impact of RCS is only going to grow as it continues to reshape the way businesses and consumers communicate,” Liszewski predicts. “Over the past few years, we’ve witnessed a major shift toward conversational messaging, and RCS is at the forefront of that. However, when it comes to the short-term impact on businesses, RCS will continue to be complementary to SMS/MMS and other messaging channels. Many businesses combine RCS and SMS to ensure they reach as wide an audience as possible, since not all devices and carriers yet fully support RCS. SMS and MMS won’t disappear, but their role may diminish as richer formats like RCS gain traction, and iMessage isn’t going anywhere.”
Seth believes RCS should gain traction as more companies see the benefits of it operating directly into the default setting of mobile devices. “For some time, SMS and RCS might coexist, but as the global adoption of RCS increases, it is very much likely that RCS will eventually eclipse simple text messaging,” he says.
Dubey is convinced that RCS could significantly transform business communication sooner than most people think.
“In the short term, adoption will continue to grow as more carriers and devices support it. In the long term, I expect RCS to become the standard for business messaging, replacing SMS/MMS almost entirely, although iMessage will likely remain a separate ecosystem for Apple users,” Dubey says. “The bottom line is that RCS is here to stay: It’s a much more powerful and versatile communication channel, and it addresses many of the limitations of older messaging technologies.”
Erik J. Martin is a Chicago area-based freelance writer and public relations expert whose articles have been featured in AARP The Magazine, Reader’s Digest, The Costco Connection, and other publications. He often writes on topics related to real estate, business, technology, healthcare, insurance, and entertainment. He also publishes several blogs, including martinspiration.com and cineversegroup.com.
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