The main difference between short messaging service (SMS) and rich communication services (RCS) is that SMS messages can only include plain text and clickable URLs, whereas RCS offers a more elevated messaging experience with more interactive features, and a more exciting visual experience overall.
SMS and RCS are both mobile messaging channels that can be used by brands to engage customers in highly personalized ways. If you’re interested in learning more about the key differences between these channels and how they can drive immense value for your business, then keep reading.
What Is RCS?
RCS is a protocol that enhances the peer-to-peer (P2P) messaging experience by offering richer interactions you’d typically find in a separate messaging app (such as WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger) directly within the native messaging app on your smartphone.
RCS for Business is the B2C version (or application-to-person, or A2P, in telecoms terminology) of RCS for brands to communicate with their customers.
Key Features of RCS
RCS for business elevates the communication experience between brands and customers with more interactive features such as:
- Read receipts, including the time a user reads a message.
- Richer image and video visuals, including rich cards that can provide visuals plus more detailed information, and carousels of up to 10 rich cards that users can scroll through.
- Built-in, suggested one-tap actions, such as Open URL, Dial, View Location, Share Location, and Create Calendar Event.
- “Verified sender” stamps, so users feel confident that they’re talking to the brand they expect.
- Typing-aware ellipses, so users will see when a brand is writing a response back to them.
What Is SMS?
SMS text messaging is the most personal, most preferred communication channel for consumers to engage with brands because it’s on the device that’s always with them. In fact, it’s the channel that 4 out of 5 consumers want to hear from brands through at least once a week.
Key Features of SMS
SMS key features include:
- Bulk messaging, which means the ability to send messages to high volumes of recipients at once, making it very useful for mass marketing communications.
- Two-way messaging capabilities, allowing users to reply to messages and engage in real time.
- No internet connection required, and compatible with any type of mobile device, making it an ideal channel for urgent, time-sensitive messages like fraud alerts or two-factor authentication.
Differences Between RCS and SMS
Here are a few key differences between the two channels.
The number of features.
There are key features only offered by RCS, including:
- Larger, high-resolution images and videos.
- Rich cards that can provide images, videos, and more detailed information, and carousels of up to 10 rich cards that users can scroll through.
- Read receipts including timestamps.
- Suggested actions and replies (e.g. Open URL, Dial, View Location, Share Location, Create Calendar Event, etc.).
- “Verified sender” stamps.
The available data insights.
RCS delivers insight beyond what SMS can provide. RCS gives you more visibility into the engagement funnel via more in-depth information about the status of messages, such as read receipts, interaction timing, reactions, multimedia element engagement and conversion rates. This information enables hyper-personalized messages for more effective campaigns.
How much they cost to send.
Each wireless carrier has their own pricing on pass-thru fees, sorting the RCS agents into different billing categories depending on how rich the message experience will be. The richer the experience, the more expensive RCS will be than traditional SMS.
Reach and user adoption.
SMS has been around for over 30 years, and is one of the most widely used channels with record-setting engagement between businesses and consumers. Couple this with the fact that nearly every mobile device is SMS compatible, it’s no wonder we see 2 trillion messages sent and received per year in the US alone.
RCS on the other hand has only been around since 2017, but momentum with this channel is growing fast. Since the beginning of 2022, total RCS users have grown 36% annually, with just over 1.4B RCS users worldwide as of June 2024. Now that Apple supports RCS messaging and 59% of the U.S. mobile market are iOS users, we expect the usage and adoption of this channel to grow exponentially in the next couple of years.
What About MMS?
Multimedia Messaging Service, or MMS, is an elevated version of SMS because it can include images, animated gifs and video content.
While this may sound a lot like the features of RCS, MMS lacks the conversational nature that RCS offers consumers - RCS looks and feels like an actual conversation between your brand and your customers, providing you with even more opportunities to create engaging, memorable customer experiences.
And the cherry on top: just like SMS and MMS, RCS is available right in the user’s native messaging app.
What About iMessage?
If you’re an Apple user, you know how the launch of iMessage changed your life: the quality of pictures and videos you could send and receive improved drastically; you could drop pins to share your precise location, and you were amazed when you started seeing a message bubble with 3 dots (i.e. an ellipses) indicating someone in progress of texting you back. That’s the type of impact RCS for business is bringing to SMS marketing.
Is RCS Better Than SMS?
While RCS has the potential to replace SMS in the near future, we don’t recommend thinking about one channel being better than the other. Rather, it’s about one channel possibly being a better fit than another depending on the use case.
Here is some guidance on which channel may be a better choice to consider for a specific situation.
When to Use RCS
To enrich interactions with your customers. While SMS relies on text, RCS offers more interactive elements. Take online ordering, for example: higher-resolution images and videos, suggested action buttons and chat-like features (e.g. emoji reactions) feel more modern and align with today's consumer expectations, which helps to decrease consumer drop off.
To reduce friction in the user experience. Need to capture customer profile data easily? Do it through the chat-like, conversational functionality that RCS offers. RCS makes the data collection experience much easier for consumers who just have to click on a button that resonates most with them instead of having to fill out a separate form or type their responses out in a text message exchange.
To improve the customer servicing experience. Things like read receipts, typing indicators (i.e. animated ellipses) and suggested quick-reply buttons not only elevate the authenticity of your brand having an actual conversation with your customers, but together these elements also enable crisper, faster issue resolution. If you’re a brand who sells to consumers, RCS can immensely improve the order exchange or return process - all without needing a separate app to handle.
When to Use SMS
- When the message is intended to be brief. One-time passwords (OTP), for example, are algorithmically generated, single-use codes that businesses send to their customers who are trying to log into their accounts. Customers who typically request these codes are usually only in need of the code as a means to easily verify their identity, and may not be interested in much else from a brand at that time.
- When widest reach is essential. Today, every mobile device is SMS compatible. Even though all phones now sold in the US have RCS by default, it's unclear how long it will take for 100% market penetration. Especially if your target audience is slower to adopt to the latest technologies, you may want to consider using SMS.
- As a fallback for non-RCS users. Currently RCS is an optional feature on compatible smartphones, so there will be smartphone users who opt to turn RCS off. This is why you'll want to lean on SMS for fallback messages that non-enabled devices can accept. For example, where an RCS online ordering experience has a nice carousel of images to pick from, an SMS version can be created that asks users to text in specific keywords.
Industry-Leading RCS & SMS Messaging, Powered by Vibes
The Vibes mobile engagement platform coupled with our 25+ years of messaging leadership helps marketers create continuous customer engagement through SMS, MMS, RCS, and Mobile Wallet, at scale.
A major advantage in partnering with Vibes is the fact that we’re the only mobile engagement platform in North America with direct carrier connections, which means you won’t have to jump through multiple hoops or work with other 3rd parties to get your messaging campaigns approved. It also means you get the benefit of quicker issue resolution and lower latency of message delivery (for those less familiar with the concept of message latency, think airline travel and how you get to your destination faster going direct vs. having a layover).
Plus, brands that use Vibes for RCS gain the advantage of our years-long relationships with Google and Apple. We have live RCS agents already working on all wireless carriers, and we are actively registering and verifying a long list of our customers who want to be among the first to activate RCS and start experimenting with certain use cases to determine which ones drive the most value for their business.
Interested in seeing RCS in action? Text RCS to 84237 to interact with a live Vibes RCS agent.
The Bottom Line
No matter your customer engagement objectives, nearly everyone carries around a smartphone - making SMS and RCS incredibly powerful channels for marketers to use.
But the promise of RCS should not be ignored - it’s not just a messaging channel, it’s a powerful platform for building interactive, app-like experiences directly in your customer’s trusted messaging app.
If you’re excited by either channel, so are we, and we have a playbook ready for you to get started with one - or both.
Get in touch to learn more about how we can help you use the power of these channels to better engage with your customers.
