Mobile marketing with RCS: What you need to know

We’ve updated our page on RCS with data showing an increase in RCS usage for Black Friday 2025 compared to the previous year.

By adding support for RCS (rich communication services) to iPhones with its iOS 18 update in the fall of 2024, Apple gave U.S. marketers a larger audience to engage with new tools over messaging.

SMS mobile campaigns are an effective way of reaching customers if they trust you enough to give you their mobile numbers. Texts are a popular way for customers to receive receipts, shipping updates, appointment confirmations and, increasingly, deals.

But text messages are a bare-bones experience — even if it includes an attached file for a picture, an emoji or link to a website (that makes it, technically, an MMS, or multimedia text). For a more compelling experience sent through texting, marketers are adopting RCS.

Marketers in the U.S. have been reluctant to execute RCS campaigns, even though the experience includes moving parts similar to an app, but without the need for a download. The reason? Until Apple got on board, the RCS format was supported only by Android.

With Apple on board, expect RCS to become a more popular and effective channel for U.S. marketers. With Android alone, marketers in the U.S. could expect to reach approximately 40% of U.S. consumers. With Apple, the reach of RCS increases to nearly 100% of phone users. (An antitrust lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice against Apple cited the company had 65% of the U.S. smartphone market.)

In May 2025, Google announced that U.S. mobile phone users were sending more than 1 billion RCS messages each day. Another report in the same month revealed T-Mobile customers are responsible for sending an average of 613 million RCS messages per day in 2025. That figure includes messages from T-Mobile-owned MVNOs like Metro, as well as partner brands such as Mint Mobile and Google Fi.

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What is RCS?

RCS is a standard that supports rich features in messaging. It was established by the GSM Association, a mobile network industry group, a decade ago. Google adopted the format in Google Messages, allowing access to the format by Android users. Up until 2024, Apple held off on supporting the format in iOS.

RCS allows users to share high-quality GIFs, videos and other interactive elements directly in a text message. Marketers can add logos and design elements that give the messages a distinct, branded look. Sophisticated RCS designs can embed carousels with multiple videos or products to sell. Users can tap on links to websites or buttons in the message, creating a user experience similar to an app but without the hassle of downloading the app.

Marketers will also have the power to measure behavior in RCS messages, so they will be able to optimize campaigns with mobile analytics.

Dig deeper: Why we care about mobile marketing

How will RCS change SMS?

“[RCS] finally will come with the feature sets we’ve all been waiting for that we believe will knock out any of those hesitations that enterprises had about using messaging as not just an operational tool, but a tool that can center their customer experiences with mobile in a significant way,” said Matt Ramerman, senior vice president, customer success and innovation at mobile experience company Sinch

“SMS makes up a large majority of how we all use our phones and interact with our friends and family,” Ramerman explained. “Enterprise use in the U.S. is largely defined by pushing out notifications — banks sending you a fraud alert, FedEx telling you your package is going to arrive today.”

He added, “Robust, modern analytics around messaging has been largely constrained, and also the channel itself…isn’t feature-rich. Those things have tempered a lot of investment by enterprises to adopt messaging as a CX tool, which is a little odd considering that’s where their customers live — but there’s been a barrier there.”

What RCS features should marketers use?

“RCS has put together a number of nice features for messaging,” said Inderpal Singh Mumick, CEO of global RCS business messaging company Dotgo. ”It really is a two-way channel that is rich in terms of its content, and that provides a lot more analytics than SMS is able to provide. Businesses get better results and better visibility through analytics, and consumers get a far more pleasant experience, better visuals, a better user experience, hence they use it more — which gives businesses better results.”

Here are some actions marketers can take with RCS campaigns, ranging from adding simple elements to providing deeper engagements with customers: 

• Send personalized messages and videos to each user.
• Include suggested replies that replace the requirement for a user to type in a response.
• Add suggested actions: Instead of replying to the sender, an action opens up a map or website to engage with or calls a phone number to speak with a service rep.
• Ask for the user’s location to recommend an action in the user’s physical environment.
• Embed a carousel with five or more options that users can swipe through.
• Collect analytics on all of the interactions with the message at an individual user level.
• A/B test the elements in an RCS message.
• Drive two-way conversations with generative AI through the RCS messaging channel, similar to a chatbot experience.

“The power of sending somebody a rich picture, a video or a carousel of pictures is so much higher than sending somebody dry text,” said Mumick.

What is the future for RCS?

Some U.S. marketers are already using RCS campaigns, according to Annette Franz, founder and CEO of customer experience consultancy CX Journey Inc. and a MarTech contributor. Apple’s support of RCS will likely lead to broader adoption of RCS campaigns by marketers.

“Whether you’re communicating with Androids or between an Android and an iPhone, it will be on RCS,” said Mumick. “It will only be a matter of time before communication will be over RCS by default.”

“With Apple onboard now, more marketers are looking to find out how they can take advantage of RCS,” Franz said. “For now, some marketers (e.g., Best Buy, Papa John’s, Subway, Walmart, Nissan) are using it but are aware of the limitations of hitting just a portion of the population. Apple users still get the messages, but they don’t get the experience because RCS is not supported on iPhones at the moment.”

Franz agrees that a richer messaging experience leads to higher engagement, which makes RCS attractive to marketers.

“Improved service and support with real-time updates and more seamless purchasing capabilities also lead to higher satisfaction levels and an experience unlike what customers have previously had,” said Franz. “These spell value for customers and for brands.”

“There are many use cases that marketers can use to engage with customers beyond just simple text messages and it’s going to take some time to figure out which of those use cases will fit with consumers,” said Alex Campbell, co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer for mobile technology company Vibes. “We don’t want to do RCS just because it looks cool, we want to do it because it improves ROI and engagement and makes a better customer experience. This year should be about figuring out which possibilities work with your specific customers.”

A superior experience and better customer service could be reasons enough for customers to depend on RCS messaging for rich interactions with their preferred brands.

Twilio releases RCS rich content features

As more businesses explore reaching customers with RCS, martech vendors that support data-driven customer experiences are developing features to capitalize on the capabilities of RCS.

In January 2025, Twilio announced Rich Content Cards, Media and Rich Card Carousels to enhance RCS messages. These features help businesses deliver personalized, engaging and visually appealing messages to RCS-capable devices.

• Twilio’s Rich Content Cards help marketers send messages that include images, video, call-to-action buttons and quick replies.
• Media integration allows brands to incorporate images, videos and documents directly into messages for more immersive communications. 
• Rich Card Carousels allow users to scroll through multiple interactive cards within a single message — ideal for visually compelling product showcases.

Infobip, a global cloud communications platform, released its new Messaging Trends Report for 2025 which demonstrates RCS messaging’s ability to build stronger relationships between brands and their customers.

Adoption of RCS increased 550% in 2024

A report from Infobip found the adoption of RCS in 2024 increased 550% throughout the year, which exceeds the 357% growth rate from 2023.

Among other findings from the Infobip report:

• RCS support on Apple iOS 18 contributed to a fivefold increase in global RCS traffic (North America alone saw a 14x surge).
• The benefits of RCS include a 72% increase in open rate, lower cost per click, fewer messages and more conversations.
• RCS adoption is improving CX for markets such as retail through increased simplicity, personalization and speed.

Attentive launches RCS Business Messaging in U.S.

Mobile marketing company Attentive launched Rich Communication Services (RCS) Business Messaging in the U.S. at the Shoptalk conference in March 2025.

RCS Business Messaging helps brands create engaging, interactive shopping experiences directly within messaging. Customers can browse products, manage their carts and more, as the messaging app becomes the new browser.

By delivering personalized shopping experiences in messaging, Attentive is aiming to help maximize conversions.

Among the features of RCS Business Messaging:

• Branded, verified messaging: Branded and verified messaging ensures consumers receive messages from a trusted sender, displaying the brand name and logo without requiring them to save contacts.
• Rich media: Features carousel-style product recommendations and rich media/video cards for product launches and personalized promotions.
• Conversational messaging: Two-way messaging at scale, with suggested replies, enhances personalization by learning more about a consumers’ preferences and needs.
• Shopping in messaging: Consumers can browse, add items to their cart, complete checkout — all within their messaging app. Messages dynamically adapt based on each shopper’s preferences, purchase history, and behavior.

Infobip launches RCS across all 4 major U.S. mobile carriers

Infobip announced in mid-June 2025 it became the first to launch RCS messaging across all four major U.S. telecom carriers. Businesses utilizing these carriers can nmow use RCS to enhance their customer communication through interactive and engaging mobile content.

The sophisticated features of RCS are designed to amplify brands’ omnichannel marketing strategies by fostering more personalized, engaging customer journeys and stronger customer relationships through dynamic, branded two-way conversations.

Infobip partnered with Listrak, a leading cross-channel marketing platform for the retail industry, and American heritage brand Dooney & Bourke to launch “12 Days of Dooney,” the first RCS marketing campaign in the United States. This test campaign, conducted during the 2024 holiday season, targeted subscribers with messages focused on holiday shopping promotions.

Infobip says the campaign yielded remarkable results: the integration of RCS more than doubled the revenue per send when compared to traditional SMS/MMS campaigns, highlighting the significant impact and potential of this new messaging standard.

Is Google preparing RCS invitations for non-users?

RCS messages require both the sender and the receiver to have RCS enabled in order to view rich messages. In an effort to help increase RCS adoption, there’s evidence Google Messages might soon test invitations for message receivers to enable RCS when someone sends them a message.

Android Authority spotted code in Google Messages that will allow message senders to invite receivers to turn on RCS if it isn’t currently enabled. With the number of RCS users rising rapidly, this miht prove to be a useful tool for converting the holdouts.

The invitations are not yet live, and it appears message senders will have a choice whether to send the invitation with an RCS message or conert the message to SMS instead.

How big a role will RCS play in the 2025 holiday season?

RCS offers consumers and brands richer experiences and deeper engagement, but whether or not it’s a critical channel for brands during the 2025 holiday shopping season.

“What we are seeing is both consumers and brands are adopting it at a slower rate than we probably would have anticipated,” Sophie Cheng, SVP of product marketing at Sinch told MarTech.

RCS messages can feature buttons and carousels, which makes it feel more like a app even though the experience is taking place in the consumer’s native messaging app.

“I absolutely think we’re goinbg to see some of the forward thinking and looking retail brands pick it up this season,” Cheng said.

Cheng added that consumers are willing to try RTS because they know it provides a superior experience. Whether or not it takes hold during the 2025 holiday season will depend on how quickly brands pick it up, not consumers, she said.

Twilio announces general availability of RCS for all customers

In late August 2025, Twilio announced the general availability of RCS messaging, allowing its customers to send branded, verified messages with rich interactive features

Twilio launched a public beta of RCS n 2024, and general availability means the company’s moe than 349,000 active customer accounts have access to RCS through Twilio’s Programmable Messaging and Verify APIs.

Existing Twilio customers can upgrade with no code changes. New customers can implement both SMS and RCS through a single integration via the Twilio platform. 

Among the key RCS capabilities highlighted by Twilio in its announcement”

• Branded messaging: Automatically upgrades SMS messages to RCS on capable devices at no additional cost for basic messages up to 160 characters, with business logos, taglines and trusted sender verification by Google.
• Rich content and interactive features: Enables call-to-action buttons, interactive carousels, location sharing and rich media content to drive higher engagement and conversion rates.
• Seamless integration: Simple configuration through the Twilio Console with automatic carrier management. 
• SMS fallback: Twilio’s platform automatically detects when RCS is unavailable and falls back to SMS, ensuring reliable message delivery without any additional configuration.

Cordial announces RCS support for its engagement platform

Cordial, which makes a platform to help marketers activate customers with multi-channel orchestrations, automations, a CDP and identity resolution capabilities, announced in late August 2025 it was making RCS available through its platform.

Cordial already supports messaging across the web, email, mobile and SMS channels. It also supports an open channel that connects Cordial to apps like mobile wallets, CRM systems and other applications.

The company cited statistics on the effectiveness of RCS messages in its announcement to support the format, saying RCS messages are read at 35x the rate of marketing emails and have a 3–7x higher click-through rate than SMS.

Fraud over RCS predicted to grow with the platform

Fraud over RCS business messaging will cost subscribers $1.3 billion in 2030, according to Juniper Research. Juniper puts the cost of RCS fraud at $300 million globally in 2025, and the growth of the platform will lead to a corresponding increase in fraud. 

Brand verification in RCS messages  increases subscribers’ trust that an enterprise is legitimate, Juniper found, but it also risks becoming a new attack vector that will undermine confidence in RCS if fraudsters can exploit it.

Juniper urges operators to form partnerships with verification bodies that offer robust verification procedures to block illegitimate verification requests, and prevent fraudulent players from accessing the RCS business messaging ecosystem.

RCS gains traction during Black Friday 2025

Data from Sinch shows a clear shift toward richer, AI-powered conversational messaging formats for Black Friday (Nov. 28, 2025). RCS increased 144% compared with the 2024 Black Friday period, while email volumes for November grew 32%. Total interactions across the Sinch platform reached 27 billion during Black Friday week.

RCS showed one of the strongest year-over-year increases among conversational channels, but email and SMS still anchored global holiday communication, supporting marketing campaigns, authentication, delivery tracking and customer service at massive scale, the data found.

Email, the preferred channel for Black Friday promotions, saw 32% higher volumes during November compared to 2024.

During Black Friday week, activity increased across all major channels on the Sinch platform, as businesses combined the reliability of SMS and email with more interactive formats such as RCS and WhatsApp to enhance customer journeys.

The post Mobile marketing with RCS: What you need to know appeared first on MarTech.

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