RCS Business Messaging

Turn Every Message Into an Experience With RCS

Communicate with your customers via RCS Business Messaging and give them a richer, more engaging experience. With features like logos, image carousels, videos, buttons and conversation flows, your messages will look professional and inviting. It’s just as simple as SMS – but far more effective.

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SMS 2.0

What is RCS Business Messaging?

RCS Business Messaging is a major breakthrough in messaging, as it opens up entirely new ways to communicate with your customers. While traditional SMS is limited to text, RCS enables a much more dynamic and app-like experience – right in your customer’s inbox.

With rich content, you can elevate the experience to a whole new level with images, video, carousels and chat conversations as well as use “suggested replies” and “suggested actions” to guide your customers forward with a single click.

With a verified RCS sender profile, you’ll appear clearly with your name, logo and information, which builds high trust. Additionally, the sender profile enables you to protect your brand. 

Features

Dive into all the benefits of RCS

Get more out of every message with RCS Business Messaging, where content, action and timing work together. Create
interactive experiences that guide your customers from the first click to the final action, right in their inbox.

Build trust from the very beginning

A clear sender and consistent branding make the experience recognizable. It reduces skepticism from your recipients and increases the desire to take action. A full 8 out of 10 report increased trust when they receive a branded RCS message from a verified organization.

Build trust from the very beginning

Solid results with RCS

RCS Business Messaging drives more attention, more engagement, and better conversion rates than traditional messaging services
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20-30%

Click-through rate on RCS campaigns, which is significantly higher than traditional messaging services.

74%

Indicated that they are more likely to engage with businesses via RCS

35X

higher likelihood of RCS messages being read compared to emails

Customize your communications with three flexible RCS Business message types

Different campaigns require different approaches. With three flexible RCS Business Messaging message types, you can customize both format and function to support your goals.

Basic

160-character messages with URL preview, verified sender with customized sender profile, and read receipts. Costs are comparable to SMS.

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Single

Up to 3,072 characters, link preview, verified sender, high-resolution images, videos and image carousels. Although the price per message is slightly higher than SMS, Single RCS can be a cost-effective choice for long messages.

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Conversational

Two-way messages with rich and interactive elements, including maps, carousels and conversations. Ideal for chatbots and direct conversions. Billed per 24-hour session.

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Automatic fallback to SMS

Make sure your messages get through

With automatic fallback, you combine the advanced features of RCS Business Messaging with the reliability of SMS. 

If your recipient doesn’t have an RCS-compatible device or is connected to a network without RCS support, our RCS Messaging API ensures that the message is automatically sent as a standard SMS instead. This ensures your recipients still receive the message, even if they can’t enjoy the full RCS experience.

How can businesses use RCS Business Messaging?

See four clear examples of how you can use RCS to create more direct and actionable customer experiences
across marketing, support, and sales.

Interactive marketing & campaigns

Be among the first to use RCS campaigns and give your customers new unique experiences. With images, video and swipeable formats, you can present products and offers in a way that feels more like a landing page than a traditional message.

Buttons and built-in actions make it easy for your recipients to respond immediately, whether the goal is a click, a purchase or a contact. When content and action are closely linked, fewer people drop off before converting.

  • Build campaigns with CTAs directly in the message
  • Option to purchase directly through the message
  • Measure the impact of your campaign via views, clicks and interactions

RCS campaigns can achieve click-through rates of up to 20–30%, which is significantly higher than traditional messaging services. Furthermore, customers are 35x more likely to read RCS messages than emails.

Customer service & support

Make it easy for your customers to get answers without creating unnecessary detours. RCS Business Messaging can handle everything from simple inquiries to more complex workflows, where the customer is either guided automatically or forwarded to an agent when appropriate.

Small details like read receipts and typing indicators make the dialogue more transparent. The conversation feels less like a support system and more like real contact, which boosts satisfaction.

  • Get faster responses and avoid repetitive inquiries
  • Reduce your support costs with automation
  • Create conversations that feel more personal and engaging

74% of consumers say they are more likely to engage with companies via RCS than traditional messaging services

Loyalty and commitment

Loyalty rarely happens on its own. It needs to be nurtured continuously and this is where RCS serves as a direct channel to make the relationship with your customers more immediate. Points, discounts and invitations land right where your customers are already active, without getting lost in the noise from other channels.

When it’s also possible to respond immediately, the path from offer to action is short. This leads to more repeated interactions over time and strengthens the relationship in a way that shows up on the bottom line.

  • Send personalized rewards directly in messages
  • Create immediate, interactive responses
  • Support repeat purchases and loyalty

80% of consumers are comfortable with personalized experiences and expect them from brands.

E-commerce & conversions

Make messages an active part of the purchase journey. Instead of redirecting your users to an external page, you can seamlessly present your products and recommendations directly within the RCS message and let them proceed from there. 

Furthermore, you can use RCS for cart recovery messages that include images of items left behind with direct purchase links. 

When your customers can explore, choose and complete purchases without switching platforms, many of the classic roadblocks disappear. Fewer drop off along the way and more complete their purchases because the whole experience feels simple and coherent. 

  • Display products directly in the message and make purchasing easier
  • Remove friction and get more customers to complete purchases
  • Boost your conversion with interactive messages and buy buttons

In e-commerce flows, RCS has been shown to increase conversions by 20–60% vs. SMS with top-performing campaigns achieving as much as 2–3× higher conversion rates in A/B tests compared to standard marketing channels. 

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Find answers to the most common questions about RCS Business Messaging

How do I get started with RCS Business Messaging?

Simply contact sales and they will help you get started.

You only need to do the technical integration once and then you can gradually add RCS to the countries and networks you want to send to via your GatewayAPI dashboard.

Can I save money by switching to RCS Business Messaging?

Yes, in some cases, switching to RCS can lead to substantial cost savings.

A single RCS message can contain up to 3,072 characters, whereas standard SMS messages are limited to 160 characters each. For long texts, e.g. 700 characters, this would typically mean sending five concatenated SMS messages. With RCS, the same message can be delivered as a single message, dramatically reducing the number of messages sent and thereby lowering your costs.

How much does it cost to send RCS messages?

Find RCS pricing here. If the country you want to send RCS messages to isn’t on the list, feel free to contact us to learn more.

Please note that RCS message prices vary depending on message type, carrier and market. At GatewayAPI, we always strive for keeping our pricing simple and transparent.

What is the coverage?

While coverage of consumer RCS is improving, current coverage of RCS Business Messaging is limited to certain markets and countries – other factors such as network and device types also affect whether or not it is supported.

How does fall-back to SMS work?

If your recipient’s device does not support RCS or if they are on a network without RCS support, the message will automatically switch to a regular SMS. This ensures that the message is still delivered.

If you have used rich media features, you may need to define how the fallback message will appear.

RCS vs. SMS

RCS can best be understood as the next layer on top of SMS. Messages include images, buttons and read receipts, where the conversation moves closer to what you’re used to seeing in apps. With RCS Business Messaging, this is systematized so that businesses can send messages from a verified sender and manage the dialogue through options, flows and automated replies.

SMS still plays a major role. It works everywhere and requires no special setup. That’s why it rarely makes sense to choose one over the other. In practice, you build a single experience where RCS is used whenever possible, and SMS handles the rest. This ensures both reach and a better experience wherever the technology can support it.

How does RCS compare to Messenger, WhatsApp and other chat apps?

WhatsApp, Messenger and other chat apps require that users have downloaded the app on their device before you can communicate with them on those apps. 

RCS, on the other hand, works naturally within the standard messaging app. This is one of RCS’s greatest strengths, and just like SMS, it offers unparalleled coverage. 

What is the difference between consumer RCS and RCS Business Messaging?

Consumer RCS is intended for person-to-person communication via RCS-compatible messaging apps, while RCS Business Messaging is designed for businesses that want to send live, interactive messages to customers.

Ready to join the next wave of messaging?

Thousands of brands are already using RCS to communicate with their customers. Do you want to join them?

Our experts are ready to show you how you can get started with RCS.