By now, you may have been hearing a lot about Rich Communication Services (RCS, for short) - hearing about how it’s about to be a big thing in the U.S. now that Apple is supporting it with their latest iOS 18 release.
If you’re a marketer and have been hearing a lot about this term, then it’s important to note that RCS is specifically for peer-to-peer messaging. There’s another related term to RCS that you should care about more since it’s what brands like you will need to begin using this exciting channel as a true marketing tool: RCS for business messaging, or RBM.
We know this may make things more confusing, which is why we’ve put the below FAQs together so you can learn more about what both RCS and RBM are, and what the key differences are.
For answers to other questions and more detailed answers on the below, be sure to tune into Vibes CIO & Co-Founder, Alex Campbell, and CTO Brian Garofola for an insightful Q&A on all things RCS.
RCS Business Messaging FAQ
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 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 so a user can see when a brand is writing a message back
This elevated experience happens entirely within the native messaging app the consumer is using, which means consumers don’t need to download an app or visit a website to have a rich interactive chat with a brand.
What is the difference between RBM and RCS?
RCS messaging 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.
RBM is the B2C version (or application-to-person, or A2P, in telecoms terminology) of RCS for brands to communicate with their customers. RBM is to RCS as a short code is to SMS.
What are the benefits of RBM compared to SMS or MMS?
Here are several key benefits we expect RBM to offer businesses as a way to improve customer loyalty and boost revenue.
- Richer customer servicing experience. RBM offers richer features similar to those of messaging apps, but all delivered through your native messaging app. Things like read receipts and typing indicators (i.e. 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 to enable crisper, faster conversational messaging that will keep your customers highly engaged.
- Reduced friction within the buyer journey. Interactions and transactions happen frequently with SMS and MMS today, but the customer is making more of an effort in the conversation. With RBM offering the feature of suggested actions and reply buttons for your customers to tap their next action vs. having to type it out significantly lowers the friction to these types of experiences.
- Improved issue resolution. Without having to be redirected to a separate app, RBM 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 - RBM merges key features from these channels into one overall communication experience.
How does RCS Business Messaging work?
Just as with a short code for SMS text messaging, 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.
How is an RBM conversation initiated?
Just like a brand would send a text message to engage with their list of SMS subscribers, a brand will also be able to initiate an RBM conversation from their messaging platform provider.
Consumers could also initiate the RBM interaction, such as clicking a “let’s chat” button on a brand’s website that would trigger a one-to-one conversation between that consumer and an RBM agent.
The one element that exists today with SMS marketing that does not currently exist with RBM: there is not a registered list of brands that would enable consumers to initiate an opt-in to receive ongoing RBM messages (i.e. there isn’t a way for a consumer to text in a keyword to a brand’s RBM agent to hear more from said brand).
How long does it take for a brand to verify & launch an RBM agent?
While the U.S. carriers are still defining their verification protocols, Vibes believes there will be a few layers that will need to be considered from a timing perspective:
- Building the agent itself, which may differ depending on if you want to use RBM for more promotional, marketing-focused interactions vs. more transactional-based interactions, like one-time passwords (or OTP)
- Getting Apple and Google’s approvals
- Getting U.S. carrier approvals, a process they are working to finalize in terms of how they will review and approve campaigns as they are created and submitted
With our years-long relationships with Apple and Google, plus our relationships with the carriers as a Tier 1 aggregator means that brands working with us for RBM will be able to get agents provisioned faster, launching live in market faster than those working with non-Tier 1 aggregators.
Is it more expensive to send an RBM message than an SMS or MMS message?
This will be determined once the wireless carriers finalize their pricing on pass-thru fees. Given it’s a richer experience, we could expect it to be more expensive than traditional SMS or MMS.
RBM agents do get sorted into different billing categories depending on how rich the message experience will be, with certain categories that are expected to charge per message and a “conversational” category that will be charged for a conversation that consists of multiple messages over a given time period (how many messages make up a single conversation is still being determined).
With the way Vibes structures our pricing, our different packages offer flexibility via a bucket of message engagements that can be used however the customer chooses to depending on their size and volume.
What is the ROI of RCS Business Messaging?
The ROI is still to be determined in the U.S. given it has not launched in this market yet, but there are a few published examples of brands, including Subway, Totalplay and Comex, who are using RBM internationally and seeing promising initial results.
Vibes will be actively working to analyze and measure the impact with our customers who’ve already raised their hand to test RBM with us as soon as it’s available in the U.S.
How many people today are using RCS/RBM?
Since the beginning of 2022, total RBM users have grown 36% annually, with just over 1.4B RBM users worldwide as of June 2024.
With 59% of the U.S. mobile market being iOS users, we expect Apple’s upcoming support for RCS to exponentially grow the usage and adoption of this channel.
What does consumer consent to receive RCS business messages from brands look like?
In the world of SMS text message marketing, there are strict industry rules that define specific parameters regarding what businesses can and cannot do with their text message marketing, including who you can contact via SMS and what those consumers need to know and do in order to successfully opt in to begin receiving marketing messages.
While official guidelines for RBM have yet to be rolled out by the relevant parties that establish mobile marketing laws – the FCC or CTIA, for instance – Vibes expects to see compliance policies put in place similar to that of SMS/MMS to honor the consumer’s right to tell a brand how they do and do not want to communicate with them. In other words, we do think it’s possible that your SMS subscribers would need to “re-opt” in to begin receiving RCS business messages from you.
When it comes to a user no longer wanting to receive RCS business messages, Google refers to the CTIA guidelines as a reputable resource for how to respond when a user texts “STOP” or another mandatory command to a short code in order to no longer receive SMS messages. It should be expected for brands to follow suit with RBM to respect a user’s wishes to no longer receive these types of messages, and ensure their RBM agents are built to understand when a user replies “STOP” and how to respond appropriately.
What will the RCS Business Messaging experience be like for an SMS subscriber who does not have an RCS-enabled device?
If an RBM agent attempts to send a message to a user who does not have an RCS-enabled device, it’s the responsibility of the messaging platform a brand is working to be able to enable logic between RCS-enabled and non-RCS enabled devices, allowing for brands to set up a fallback message that the non-enabled devices can accept.
For example, where an RBM 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.
That said, not all RBM flows would translate effectively to an SMS fallback experience. Going back to the online ordering example, instead of trying to recreate the ordering RBM agent a brand may want to direct those users to order via their mobile app instead.
The Vibes platform will allow for brands to easily set up the fallback experience for their subscribers, and our Customer Success team will be working closely with all of our customers using RBM to guide them on the best default experience to set up to ensure it’s the most impactful experience for exchanging similar information.
Is RCS Business Messaging secure?
RCS as a protocol can achieve end-to-end encryption if both devices are Google devices. However, while RBM does have appropriate levels of security when it comes to moving the data around on various networks, currently it does not have end-to-end encryption, so is not considered more secure than SMS or MMS.
How Vibes is Leading the Way in RBM
Vibes has live agents already working on all wireless carriers, and we are actively assembling our list of brands who have said they want to get registered and verified so they can begin securing agents and start testing their use cases.
Additionally, our relationships with the carriers as a Tier 1 aggregator means brands won’t have to jump through multiple hoops or work with other 3rd parties to get their campaigns approved. Being a Tier 1 aggregator also means we will be one of the first to know when new RCS/RBM features will be available and other important updates.
Additionally, working with a Tier 1 aggregator means that brands get the benefit of quicker resolution of issues 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 our years-long relationships with both Apple and Google - including us being an early-access registered messaging partner with Google at the initial launch of RCS in 2017 - gives us an advantage in registering brands now that Apple enabled RBM as part of their iOS 18 launch.
The Bottom Line
RCS business messaging has arrived, with the major potential of being the next big wave in mobile message marketing – it’s a big deal.
With carriers rolling out RBM at different times, Vibes predicts that 2025 is going to be a year of learning, growing and experimenting, and 2026 becomes the year of scaling.
Vibes is already working on helping our customers get registered and test out the use cases that we expect will be the most impactful for them.
If you’re ready to go down the RCS path as a way to engage even more meaningfully with your customers than you do today, then let’s chat.
