An emerging mobile communication standard could reach critical mass later this year, boosting performance for an already outstanding promotional channel.
The Rich Communication Services (RCS) standard could supersede two mobile message types: Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS).
RCS enables relatively more message interactivity, making it possible to share rich media, including buttons, carousels, and branding. It allows a mobile device’s native text messaging app to behave like an over-the-top version, e.g., WhatsApp, WeChat, and Facebook Messenger.
RCS is coming to North American businesses. Providers include Twilio, Infobip, and Sinch, shown here.
RCS for Merchants
The RCS standard has been in development since 2007. It became available in the United States in 2015 but took a decade to reach smartphone users. Most Android users had access to RCS in 2023, and after some delay, Apple added RCS support with iOS 18.1 in October 2024. Canada and Mexico had RCS even sooner than the United States, meaning RCS is widely available throughout North America.
However, most RCS messages have been person-to-person and did not take full advantage of the service’s upgraded capabilities.
The next significant RCS step will be business messaging. Companies have to be registered and verified to send RCS messages. Registration often occurs through a third-party, communication-as-a-service provider such as Twilio, Infobip, and Sinch, and ultimately requires individual carrier approval, which can take time.
Yet all signs indicate that RCS will scale commercially in the latter half of 2025. Juniper Research, for example, predicted that some 50 billion RCS messages will occur in 2025. Others believe RCS could be popular with enterprise retailers during the 2025 Christmas shopping season.
Brand identity
One often discussed RCS feature is branding. Because RCS senders are registered and verified, messages use the brand’s name rather than a phone number or short code for identification. Thus, a text message could arrive from, say, “Target” instead of “12345.” It could also show Target’s logo.
Interactivity
RCS supports clickable images. By comparison, an MMS message could include an image up to 500 KB and a separate text link. An ecommerce merchant using MMS might send a product image and a link to the product page. But with RCS, product images are 100 MB (200 times larger) and clickable.
Hence an RCS message could contain clickable call-to-action buttons. A seller might include a “Track My Order,” “Buy Now,” or even an “Order Again” button directly in the message.
Depending on its ecommerce platform and messaging opt-in process, a merchant could conceivably include one-touch order buttons that allow a recipient to tap to order without leaving the messaging app.
Finally, RCS will likely include so-called application-to-person chat. A shopper could receive an order confirmation message, reply to the message via an AI chatbot, and receive rich media link images, interactive maps, in-app surveys, and more.
Metrics
RCS also offers improved campaign tracking, such as open or seen rates, clicks, and types of message interactions.
Performance
Even without RCS, text messaging is a high-performing, if challenging, marketing channel.
Forbes, Sender, Mailchimp, and others place text message open rates above 90% and click rates at 40%. Moreover, shoppers typically respond quickly to texts, often in seconds. And compared to other marketing channels, SMS is inexpensive.
If SMS and MMS have a weakness, it’s the limitations of relatively small images and no clickable elements, which the RCS addresses.
How much RCS at scale can improve on SMS and MMS is uncertain, but there are indications. For example, a 2019 RCS test from Subway and the Sprint Network produced 60% higher click rates than SMS.
Next Steps
Pricing for RCS business messaging is sometimes confusing or at least misunderstood, mainly owing to an á la carte model. Some RCS messages could be significantly more expensive than others, based partly on the template and capabilities.
Thus ecommerce marketers considering RCS should gauge the return on investment carefully and consider a blended approach for campaigns — RCS, MMS, and SMS.
Some merchants may opt to avoid RCS altogether. Regardless, commercial text messaging is an emerging channel in 2025. Services such as Audience Tap and Textual can help smaller merchants get started.