Messaging has become the preeminent way we interact with friends, acquaintances, and the businesses we patronize. Particularly SMS - a channel that started out as a place for quick notes among friends, has now catapulted itself into the most powerful way for brands and businesses to engage consumers.
Rich Communication Services (RCS) has long held the promise of supercharging the value of SMS, and the hype has only been growing since Apple announced they’re officially joining Android and Samsung who already support RCS, and that RCS will be available on all iOS devices when Apple rolls out iOS 18 later this year.
At Vibes, we continue to keep a pulse on the realities of RCS as it launches, and we see a lot of very useful strategies brands will be able to augment using RCS. Below we will dive into RCS, and give a few examples of our favorite use cases, and why they’re a big deal for marketers.
What is RCS messaging?
RCS messaging, sometimes referred to as RCS chat, is a protocol that enhances peer-to-peer (P2P) messaging by bringing enriched, interactive experiences you typically find in a separate messaging app like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, directly into your native messaging app. It improves upon SMS to make it more interactive and visual. If sending and receiving silly GIFs and videos via text was your idea of messaging 2.0, then RCS can be considered your messaging 3.0.
If you’re an Apple user, think about 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 can you even imagine a future world where you cannot see a message bubble with 3 dots (called an ellipsis!), indicating someone in progress of texting you back? That’s the type of impact RCS chat can bring to SMS marketing.
What is RCS business messaging?
RCS business messaging, or RBM, is the application-to-person (A2P) version of RCS for brands to communicate with their customers. RBM is to RCS as a short code is to SMS.
(I know what you’re thinking – “all these acronyms are so awesome, so why wouldn’t they come up with some more new ones?” Happy to help.)
RBM elevates the interaction between brands and customers with key features such as:
- Read receipts, including the time a user reads a message
- Richer image and video visuals
- Suggested one-tap actions and replies (e.g. Open URL, Dial, View Location, Share Location, Create Calendar Event, etc.)
- 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! Even in RBM a user will see when a brand is writing a message back (as a brand this is important to think about – ask any teenager about the importance of ellipses!)
As a business, how do I use RCS messaging?
RBM is a medium for RCS interactions to occur between brands and their customers, giving brands the opportunity to hyper-personalize each customer’s individual journey — all within the native messaging app the consumer is using. This means consumers don’t need to download an app or visit a web site to have a rich interactive chat with a brand.
Since RCS is embedded into the default messaging app, it is fairly simple to use for anybody whose mobile device and wireless carrier support the feature. RCS chat is a feature already enabled today for Android devices, and Google Messages has enabled RCS by default for all users.
RBM is run through a separate agent which, technically speaking, is a chatbot or interactive messaging application that uses the RCS protocol. Think of the agent as an app that sends and receives RCS messages on your behalf.
What are the benefits of RCS?
There are a few key advantages we expect RCS messaging to offer businesses to improve the customer experience.
Richer customer servicing experience.
Things like read receipts and typing indicators (animated ellipses!) elevate the authenticity of a brand having an actual conversation with their customers, while also providing you more visibility into the engagement funnel via more in-depth information about the status of messages.
Couple this with richer media like high-resolution images and buttons enable crisper, faster conversational messaging that will keep your customers highly engaged.
Improved issue resolution.
Without having to be redirected to a separate app, RCS can also offer an improved customer servicing experience for helping solve issues for things like order exchanges or returns.
More unified digital channel experience.
SMS and MMS have certain channel capabilities that are not available in mobile apps, and vice versa - RCS merges key features from these channels into one overall communication experience.
What are the disadvantages of RCS?
Currently, there are two disadvantages to RCS messaging that stand out to me.
User adoption.
By the end of the year, I predict about 40M handsets in the US will support RBM. This is pretty low when it comes to SMS marketing, so RCS is probably going to be a 2025 strategy. Things can change quickly though, based on how quickly the mobile carriers roll out RBM.
Undetermined increase in ROI.
Yes, RCS has potential. But we won’t know just how much better it is vs. SMS or MMS until it’s in the real world. RCS has not launched in the U.S. yet, so there are no quantifiable benchmarks to measure it vs. SMS or MMS. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t experiment with RBM. Brands who learn faster will have a distinct advantage over those who lag their competition.
RCS vs. SMS and MMS: key differences
Here are a couple of key differences between the channels.
How messages are sent and received.
SMS and MMS messages are sent through your wireless carrier (e.g. Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, etc.), while RCS messages are sent via an internet connection.
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” checkmarks
Is RCS replacing SMS?
Gradually, over time yes, RCS could eventually replace SMS and MMS – probably over the next 3-5 years. The hope is that RCS just becomes what we all use to send and receive text messages. We won’t call it RCS just like we don’t really call it SMS today. It will just be text messaging.
What are some RCS messaging use cases?
Here are a few use cases primed for RCS (and why this should excite you if you’re a marketer).
One-Time Password (OTP)
OTPs are algorithmically generated, single-use codes that businesses send to their customers who are trying to log into their accounts. Customers typically use these codes in addition to their regular login credentials, to easily verify their identity.
This is the RCS use case we expect will roll out first in the U.S.
Why is this a big deal? The verified sender checkmark gives users the assurance and confidence that they're hearing from the brand they expect vs. being fraudulently hacked.
Online Ordering
This is an example of what the online ordering process could look like for restaurants - offering a more interactive messaging experience with images, buttons with suggested responses (instead of the user having to type their response out), payment confirmation, and more, to provide the gold standard user experience.
Why is this a big deal? It’s more interaction with fewer clicks, and less toggling between a messaging app, web browser, and brand app - all of which eliminates steps in the buying process, helping to decrease drop-off. It helps guests complete their buying mission faster and easier which helps marketers drive more revenue. We see a day when consumers don’t even need an app to order from their favorite restaurant.
Cart Recovery
Similar to online ordering, this is what the buying process could look like for retailers who use cart recovery as part of their digital communication strategy, enriched with product images that show what was left in the shopper’s cart plus recommendations that pair nicely and would be good cart additions.
Why is this a big deal? It’s a better customer experience with fewer clicks, meaning less drop off and incomplete transactions. It helps shoppers complete their buying mission faster and easier which helps marketers drive more revenue.
Adding a Mobile Wallet Pass
Another example of an experience that RCS will improve that feels very near and dear to Vibes: adding a pass to your Mobile Wallet.
Why is this a big deal? It's more interactive without toggling between the user's messaging app and digital wallet app like we see today in SMS.
How is Vibes leading in RCS?
Vibes was an early access partner with Google at the initial launch of RCS, so we are well-versed in the RCS and RBM APIs and technology.
Today, our most important job is to continue to watch it closely until it reaches an addressable market size — as we said, it is still going to take some time for this emerging channel to gain serious momentum.
With RCS being a carrier-based technology at its core, ultimately the carriers lead the pace of change with RCS. When we reach that tipping point of a significant addressable market size, being a reliable Tier 1 messaging aggregator with strong relationships with the wireless carriers will ensure that our customers will be in the best of hands in helping them achieve new levels of messaging engagement success.
If you'd like to hear more about our latest predictions on RCS, what we know from the carriers and Apple about timing, and more intel then let's talk.
Final thoughts on RCS messaging
I’ve been in the messaging world for over 25 years. I remember when we moved from triple tap on flip phones to typing on Blackberries, to the buttonless iPhone. These step function changes were monumental in making SMS marketing the size it is today. RCS and RBM can potentially be the next step function for mobile message marketing – it’s a big deal. As we continue to keep a pulse on what the realities of RCS will be, we are excited to see how the most innovative brands use it to create better customer experiences.
Learn more about how we help our customers use the power of other impactful messaging channels today, including SMS, MMS and Mobile Wallet.
