Thirty years ago, a 22-year-old engineer working for a global phone company sent the first text message in history, wishing a colleague a “Merry Christmas”.
Since then, SMS has been the dominant messaging protocol around the world. As mobile phones proliferated, SMS, with its wide reach and reliability, has endured.
Group Product Manager, Corporate RCS at Infobip.
But there has been a change. Accelerated adoption by Apple in 2024, Rich Communications Services, or RCS, is a new standard that elevates mobile messaging.
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While SMS is limited to text-only communication, RCS is specifically designed to provide the rich, interactive messaging experience that has become popular on channels such as iMessage, WhatsApp, Viber and other “top” channels.
With RCS, you can add emoji to your note, “like,” “dislike,” or “laugh” the received message, and most importantly, make sure your GIF is animated.
As RCS reaches critical mass in our digital world, brands and digital marketing teams are paying attention, and the use cases for the channel are reaching maturity.
Across retail, travel, tourism, finance and other major industries, strategies are being used to improve the interactive features of RCS in campaigns that increase customer loyalty, ensure brand trust and ultimately increase engagement metrics to break even.
Inflection point: Why RCS adoption is accelerating now
RCS is expected to grow to 3.8B users by the end of 2026, so it is important to know its features and understand how it differs from SMS. Going beyond high-resolution media to attract consumer attention, RCS’ key differentiators include:
- Learn receipts and typing tips that help support active engagement.
- End-to-end encryption of messages between users, addressing growing consumer concerns about fraudulent mobile activity.
- Carrier testing and certification of products that use the channel to communicate with their customers, increases the confidence of consumers that they are talking to a certified business.
- Long character limits and support for images, videos and PDFs, allowing brands to send rich messages to their customers instead of sending multiple, separate notes and links.
- In-app features like appointment booking and shopping make it easy for consumers to complete their journey in one place.
As RCS becomes mainstream, brands are using the protocol to roll out omni-channel communication campaigns that elevate customer engagement and provide measurable feedback.
How to install RCS
Where SMS is limited to plain text and vague links, RCS provides an app-like experience without the need for any downloads, making campaigns engaging, measurable, and personal.
With RCS, retailers remind shoppers what they left in their cart and allow them to complete purchases from their messaging automation app, while airlines send travelers flight updates, interactive airport maps and transit events, to ensure travelers have a smooth experience.
To use the RCS campaign, you must ensure that you meet all compliance and approval requirements for carrier approval.
Then, you’ll want to target a positive, impactful situation that can benefit from rich media and two-way communication, such as order confirmations, cart abandonment reminders, appointment scheduling, or personalized promotions.
Medical offices, for example, can use RCS messages that integrate directly with Google Calendar, ensuring that doctors and patients avoid wasted time and costs associated with missing appointments.
RCS requires a verified sender status, which verifies the product to avoid messages being marked as spam. Display logos, company information, and contact information can also be included to improve brand recognition and ensure customer confidence.
Most impactful, campaign performance can be analyzed in real-time to track delivery status, read receipts, clicks, swipes, and more. From there, audiences can be segmented based on engagement to trigger personalized targeting or retargeting campaigns.
The conclusion
SMS has long been a structured channel for mobile marketing, but RCS, with its app-like experience, is becoming an important channel in the omnichannel mix.
Research by Omdia predicts that RCS traffic will quadruple from 1.5 trillion messages in 2024 to over 6 billion messages in 2029. As a result, A2P (Application-to-person) RCS will generate $4.2 billion in revenue by the end of the decade.
SMS, due to its reliability and wide reach, will remain an important channel in the overall communication system, but as RCS expands, expect it to consume a large share of the total share.
Today’s digital native audience wants brands to connect with them in a personal and natural way, similar to how they text a friend or family member.
For brands, RCS’s ability to deliver rich, interactive communications translates into deep customer loyalty, long-term loyalty, and a reputation as a brand people love to do business with.
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