The exciting thing about digital marketing and services such as SMS and email are the fact that they are constantly evolving. Clever marketers and business owners need to remain abreast of these changes and evolve their approach with them so as to be on top – and stay there.
The key purpose of all digital marketing efforts is to reach, engage and captivate consumer audiences. And the most powerful type of technology to achieve this is literally coming to your doorstep: Rich Communication Services, or RCS.
What is RCS?
RCS is literally the future of SMS messaging.
More than 3.5 billion smartphone users worldwide use SMS on a regular basis. Companies like Google and Samsung want in on the action – and RCS is the result. It will marry the features offered by
Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, iMessage and others with SMS, without any requirement for users to sign into a social network or have a specific phone type.
Also known as Advanced Communications, Message+, and Joyn, RCS is a communications protocol which is both intended and predicted to eventually succeed SMS (which was created in its first form in 1982 and has essentially not changed). RCS will be a platform richer and far more capable than SMS is today.
Features of RCS will include:
Read receipts | High-resolution images | Action and reply buttons | Video and GIF
Star ratings | Location sharing | Create/archive chats | Read indicators | Video calls
Image carousels | Encryption | Branding | All phones & software | Add to calendar button
RCS is predicted to be as commonplace in the future as SMS is now, however unlike SMS, it will be sent via mobile data or Wi-Fi connection.
Say Goodbye to the Limitations of SMS
SMS is great. But RCS is better.
SMS does not support certain features, including for group messaging, animated stickers, read receipts, and other features apps such as Facebook Messenger do. SMS is limited in character length. SMS also relies on mobile connection. Yet in spite of all of this, SMS remains a very popular communications channel.
The potential of RCS, in contrast, is almost infinite.
Thanks to the advent of RCS, the boundaries of mobile messaging to engage with consumers and customers will shift dramatically. Here at ClickSend, we are very excited about the arrival of RCS and to discover how we can help your brand converse, engage, and transact with your customers like never before using this exciting new technology.
RCS is truly the future of mobile messaging – and ClickSend will lead the way. Stay tuned, much to follow on this from us…………
UPDATE 20/04/18: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS. In a nutshell, Google is pulling back its work on Allo, its smart messaging app, to focus on RCS, which it’s now branding as ‘Chat’. The company told The Verge that it is “pausing” work on Allo, which was only launched as recently as September 2016, in order to put its resources into the adoption of RCS (Rich Communication Services), a messaging standard that has the potential to tie together SMS and other chat apps. RCS isn’t new, and Google has been pushing it for some time, but now the company is rebranding it as “Chat” and putting all its efforts into getting operators on board. Read the full article here: https://tcrn.ch/2FbD1KZ
