The mobile world changes quickly, as do companies’ attitudes and activities related to mobile as a marketing channel. That’s why we decided to conduct research and produce Vibes' 2026 MarTech Leader Survey report, revealing how businesses are navigating the digital marketing ecosystem, their sentiment on AI, and more.
Among a variety of valuable findings, 4 mobile marketing trends formed from the results for 2026.
Where Mobile Marketing Stands In 2026
The rules of the mobile marketing landscape are changing. For instance, mobile app usage is declining, with the prediction that it will decrease by 25% due to AI assistants.
While personalization is far from new, the personalization bar keeps getting higher.
Finally, there's a new kid in town: RCS messaging is on the rise, with researchers forecasting RCS revenue for business to reach $3B globally, growing 150% in two years since its launch in the US in 2025.
These are all changes brands like yours should be adapting to, so let's break these key findings down further.
SMS is still a revenue workhorse.
When asked about proving its value to a business, MarTech leaders confidently articulated how much their SMS text messaging programs are worthy, which they say must be justified by KPIs including ROI, revenue, conversion, retention, and lifetime value.
Brands surveyed expressed very little concern about their SMS programs being at risk, given they find that their SMS customers often have higher purchase rates and frequencies compared to their non-SMS customers. One VP of Marketing of a large sports retailer proudly declared that their "SMS program wouldn't be on the chopping block - I see the channel growing in the next year and keeping the same budget if not getting an increase."
If you're wondering what that translates to in terms of revenue, global mobile-first brands like Chipotle, Kohl's, Polo Ralph Lauren, and others who use Vibes to deliver their SMS messages see an average 90x ROI.
RCS is the biggest opportunity in 2026 and beyond.
In Vibes' 2026 MarTech Leader Survey, more than half of marketing leaders say they're at least somewhat familiar with and interested in RCS but only 10% saying they're actively using it today.
RCS enables an upgraded customer experience that brands desire - from suggested one-tap replies to rich image and video visuals, the latter of which ~55% of respondents cited as the enhancement they most want because it aligns with broader short-form video consumption trends. It’s no wonder 81% of consumers surveyed in Vibes' annual Mobile Consumer Insights Report say RCS messaging is even better than SMS – pointing the way to an explosive future for mobile commerce.
The online-to-offline journey is still broken for most brands.
71% of marketing leaders in Vibes' 2026 MarTech Leader Survey give “frictionless redemption processes” a rating of 1-2, reporting pains with their offers/coupons not connecting across channels and customer journeys breaking between the digital and physical ones.
The fix for many brands - and Vibes customers - has been to actively put digital versions of offers and loyalty cards in their customers' native Mobile Wallet. Whether redeemed in-store or online, every mobile wallet pass can be uniquely identified and tracked, providing you with unique attribution. And for marketers who pair SMS and Mobile Wallet together, they see 19x more revenue per message from campaigns that use both channels vs. just sending SMS messages by themselves.
"I feel strongly about how Mobile Wallet helps keep our brand top of mind with the consumer and makes the pay to purchase much easier", said one VP of Digital Commerce for a major apparel retail brand.
For other brands that have activated this channel, they're reducing the lookup, login and redemption steps for their customers and alleviating this deep pain point as a result.
Brands don't lack AI interest, they lack usable AI.
AI-driven customer engagement was the lowest-rated capability by survey respondents, not because it doesn't interest brands – because they don't have usable AI that actually improves outcomes. In other words, automation for automation's sake is no longer enough.
For brands seeking usable AI tools for smarter mobile messaging campaigns, Vibes' AI is trained on 25+ years of real SMS data and real-world examples. Our platform looks at actual click-through rates, and at which SMS messages did and didn't convert in order to direct our customers to automated, intelligent outcomes.
Sophisticated personalization and orchestration has a wide execution gap.
According to research, 45% of consumers prefer brands use their past behaviors to communicate with them (e.g. purchase behavior), yet only 34% of brands say they execute behavioral personalization effectively. And yet, 55% of brands feel confident that their customers trust them, despite the fact only 21% rate their cross-channel orchestration as strong.
These stats allude to the notion that most brands are doing behavioral personalization/segmentation in theory, but are doing more surface-level targeting in practice - some brands even admitted they are still batching-and-blasting their communications.
This gap - trust perceivably earned without consistent delivery of a personalized experience - represents both a risk of trust eroding due to unmet expectations, and an opportunity for brands to prioritize upgrading the experience that already exists today.
Where Mobile Marketing is Heading
We have three predictions of the future of mobile marketing based on this research:
- SMS is likely to keep growing as a channel. For brands using SMS as a primary channel today - along with orchestrating it effectively with other top-performing channels - your mobile marketing future looks bright.
- RCS messaging is no longer what's next - it's what's right now. Brands that fully embrace RCS to elevate the customer experience and build more trust with them will dominate over those clinging to older, traditional channels.
- Bad online-to-offline experiences will drive your customers away. Consumers demand fast, accessible, seamless interactions at every step in their journey. Failure to improve on this gap will result in customer churn that may never be able to be recuperated.
How to Act On These Trends
Here are just a few recommended ways you can act on these learnings and make a positive impact.
- Test RCS messaging vs. SMS. One recommendation is to test RCS messaging use cases vs. SMS to learn what resonates best with your audience. RCS's wide range of features offers a centralized hub to meet a wide variety of consumer needs.
- Do a trial run of Mobile Wallet. Along similar lines of testing, consider trying Mobile Wallet as a tactic to improve the online-to-offline customer experience. Mobile Wallet was built to solve a lot of pain points, including reducing the lookup, login and redemption steps in the buyer journey. Less friction means more satisfied, loyal customers.
- Invest in AI tools that will improve your performance metrics. Make sure the mobile marketing platform you partner with has AI/LLM tools for things like messaging timing, targeting, or "next best" actions that are proven tactics for improving program performance and ROI.
For more recommendations on what these survey results mean for you - including key takeaways by role - download the full report here.
The Bottom Line
The results from this research are clear: the brands with the biggest opportunity to win in 2026 and beyond are the ones who shift their focus towards closing the gap between the online-to-offline customer experience, and who embrace the reliable SMS channel along with the surging RCS and mobile wallet channels.
If this sounds like a tall order, it's even more important to partner with a mobile marketing expert like Vibes. For more than 25 years we've prided ourselves not only on our mobile-first platform, but also our unparalleled strategic focus on helping our customers build orchestrated, customized SMS, RCS and mobile wallet marketing programs that exceed their business goals, and why Vibes customers see 25% lower SMS subscriber churn than those using competitive platforms.
Download our 2026 MarTech Leader Survey report for the full data set, and when you're ready to take your mobile marketing game to its next level let's chat further.
Mobile Marketing Trends FAQs
What are the biggest mobile marketing trends for 2026?
The biggest mobile marketing trends for 2026 include more sophisticated personalization in messaging, stronger omnichannel orchestration, frictionless online-to-offline customer experiences, usable AI tools, and the rise of RCS messaging. These trends reflect an overarching shift towards more relevant, hyper-personalized brand-to-consumer communication at every step of the customer journey - both pre and post-purchase.
Is SMS marketing still effective in 2026?
Yes, because it's the channel consumers interact with on the device that's always with them, delivering millions in revenue for major mobile-first brands like Chipotle, Polo Ralph Lauren, Mattress Firm, and others as a result. SMS text messaging is a more personal, quicker connection between brands and customers compared to email - especially for brands seeking to drive more foot traffic to physical locations.
What is RCS messaging, and is it worth it for marketers?
RCS messaging elevates the interactions between brands and customers that goes far beyond what we're used to with SMS text messaging. It offers key features such as:
- Suggested one-tap action / reply buttons that allow users to tap instead of a type a response to the brand they're interacting with
- Rich cards that can provide images, videos, and more detailed information, and carousels of up to 10 rich cards that users can scroll through
- “Verified sender” checkmarks, so users feel confident that they’re talking to the brand they expect
- Typing aware ellipses so a user can see when a brand is writing a message back
RCS happens entirely within the native messaging app the consumer is using, which means they don’t need to download an app or visit a website to have a rich interactive conversation with your brand.
Vibes customers are already seeing 3x engagement and a 30% boost in revenue vs. SMS, so now's the time to be a part of this newest wave of messaging.
What is the difference between SMS and RCS?
There are a few key differences between SMS and RCS, such as how messages are sent and received, the number of available features, and the available performance data.
How is AI changing mobile marketing?
AI is helping marketers and brands improve how you deliver your mobile messages at the right time, to the right audience and with the perfect content to capture the click.
While it cannot replace human-led thought leadership, strategy and insights, AI is helping to direct brands to more automated, intelligent outcomes at scale for your mobile marketing programs.
How does Mobile Wallet fit into a mobile marketing strategy?
From digital coupons/offers to loyalty cards, Mobile Wallet can easily be implemented alongside your other mobile marketing channels as part of a singular program to effectively inform, motivate and engage consumers across the customer journey.
Anywhere you can embed a URL you can deliver a mobile wallet pass, meaning you can take a multichannel approach to promoting program signup as well as getting passes into more customers’ mobile wallets.
If used in conjunction with SMS and RCS - two highly personal, conversational channels that consumers are already extremely receptive to engaging with brands in - Mobile Wallet brings more consumers into a mobile program, while also driving a deeper connection by serving as an effective, impactful promotional channel.
