RCS: Best practices to follow
June 10, 2024, Apple announced support for RCS or Rich Communication Services on iOS 18 and it's excellent news, long-awaited! This medium, often presented as the successor to SMS, it isn't really, but it promises richer and more interactive communication and will therefore be suitable for certain applications requiring enriched messaging. But will this adoption by Apple truly change the game for advertisers and message recipients?
What is Rich Communication Services?
This new technology enhances and surpasses the functionalities of traditional SMS. It allows for sending rich messages with images, videos, and interactive buttons, offering capabilities similar to instant messaging applications. Unlike RCS, SMS has the limitation of 160 characters, which operators charge for each segment started, for automated sends by API and for manual shipments via a web interface. Comparatively, this medium costs about twice as much but remains more flexible and advanced than the SMS traditional generated on a platform, it allows you to send rich messages containing images, videos, and trackable links. It's a Mix between SMS, email marketing, and the features of a modern instant messaging service like WhatsApp or Telegram. The price is about twice as high as traditional SMS.
iOS 18 and support
With iOS 18, Apple has finally decided to support this media, a long-awaited development. Until now, the lack of support on iPhone limited its adoption, especially for communications between iOS and Android users. This news could therefore broaden the audience for campaigns more rich and interactive. This therefore represents a major advance. It could pave the way for more immersive campaigns, more engaging, and especially interoperable with all smartphones. For brands, this means potential access to 100 % of their mobile customer base via a single enriched channel, without needing a third-party application.
Implications for Businesses
Apple's support for this medium is good news for businesses, as it paves the way for more interactive communication campaigns. However, it's important to note that sending these types of messages en masse often relies on a different one-to-one standard. Indeed, professional RCS generally uses the RCS Universal Profile, which is not always implemented uniformly by all carriers and device manufacturers. Furthermore, the high cost of this new medium compared to traditional SMS remains a major obstacle for many businesses.
Cost-benefit analysis
This new communication method offers many advantages in terms of content and interactivity, but the high cost of RCS remains a barrier. For many businesses, SMS, when compared, presents a more effective option for reaching a large audience. Although limited in features, it has proven its effectiveness and reliability over the years. Campaigns are simple to set up, less expensive, and reach all recipients without exception. We believe that the choice of communication medium by a company will depend on the type of message it needs to send. With the general policy always being to rationalize costs while maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction, these two somewhat related media have a prosperous future assured. So SMS or RCS?
Text messaging is not dead at all!
At Efidem, the announcement of Apple's support for RCS is a significant step. It remains to be seen if this will truly change the mobile communication landscape for businesses. The high cost and potential limitations of mass RCS messaging could slow its adoption, nevertheless, the RCS message format offers many advantages, especially for promotional and marketing applications. For now, SMS remains an essential option for mobile communication campaigns., offering unparalleled reach at a reasonable cost. So, don't count SMS out just yet – it still has plenty of advantages and a bright future ahead.
More information on the subject
You can contact us to discuss the RCS topic via the Contact Form, visit our Home page you can consult the documentation SMS techniques webservice and FTPS.
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