RCS Messages: All You Need to Know in 2025

Krishi Shivasangaran Published On March 11th, 2025 Tech Talks

“Merry Christmas”. That’s the first SMS of this world. In December 1992, a British engineer named Neil Papworth typed this simple greeting and sent it to Vodafone director Richard Jarvis. 

For the next three decades, those 160 character text messages defined how the world connected. 

We started to build a global language, short, sweet and abbreviated: ASAP (As Soon As Possible), BTW (By The Way), BRB (Be Right Back), FYI (For Your Information), LOL (Laugh Out Loud), and more. 

On the other hand, tech giants and mobile carriers noticed a gap in this communication: limitations in character count, lack of real-time capabilities and features that were not interactive. 

In 2007, GSMA came up with a solution: RCS messages. 

For both personal and business use, RCS changed how everyone connected. It went beyond a limited text messaging to 1:1 instant messages, group chat, video & voice calling, media sharing, product demos through videos, catalog sharing, reminders, updates and what not! 

Looks like RCS is not going anywhere for a while. In this article, I’ll break down what RCS messages are, how it works, and why it matters for your business in 2025.

What is an RCS Message?

RCS (Rich Communication Services) message is a service designed for real-time instant messaging in Android and iOS apps . Unlike traditional SMS , RCS messages make communication more interactive and efficient with real-time features. 

How Does RCS Chat Work?

Although RCS and SMS operate similarly, it was created as an upgrade + direct replacement of the latter. In this section, we’ll discuss how RCS works to enable real-time messaging. 

Working of RCS (Rich Communication Services) in Steps

1. Message Composition
   • The sender types a message in an RCS-supported messaging app (e.g., Google Messages or iOS Messages on iOS 18).
   • Rich features like read receipts, typing indicators, high-quality media sharing, and reactions can be included.
2. Device and Network Compatibility Check
   • The system verifies whether both the sender’s and recipient’s devices support RCS.
   • If both have RCS enabled, the message proceeds as an RCS message.
3. Session Establishment
   • The system uses the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) to establish a communication session between the sender and recipient over the internet.
4. Message Transmission
   • The Message Session Relay Protocol (MSRP) ensures the message is delivered securely and maintains its integrity.
   • The message is transmitted via mobile data or Wi-Fi through Google’s RCS backend infrastructure.
5. Fallback Mechanism
   • If the recipient’s device does not support RCS or has no internet connection, the message defaults to SMS or MMS.
   • Alternative messaging apps like WhatsApp may also be used as a fallback.
6. End-to-End Encryption
   • If both sender and recipient use RCS and encryption is enabled, the message is encrypted for privacy.
   • A blue lock icon appears on the send button, indicating a secure conversation.
7. Message Reception
   • The recipient’s device receives the message with all RCS features (e.g., read receipts, typing indicators).
   • If RCS is not supported, the message appears as a standard SMS/MMS.
8. User Interaction
   • The recipient can reply with rich media, emojis, or reactions, continuing the conversation over RCS.
   • The system keeps checking network availability to ensure smooth delivery.

The Features That Make RCS Messages Unique

We use almost all of them everyday. Both in personal and business scenarios, RCS messages help us communicate better with a variety of features. Let’s take a look into each of them:

Multimedia Capabilities

• High-Quality Images and Multimedia: You can share images and videos up to 100MB at the highest possible quality. These images can contain HD colors and better visual fidelity. RCS supports them effortlessly. 
• File Transfers: You can send or receive media of any type: PDF, GIF, JPEG, and MP4 video, which might not be an option with regular SMS. 

Advanced Communication Tools

• Higher Text Limits: When you send an SMS, you can’t send out big messages. It has a character limit set to 160. But, whereas you can send out even an essay with up to 250000 characters. 

• Read Receipts and Typing Indicators: You don’t have to keep staring at your mobile screen, waiting for a reply from the other end, without knowing if your message was read. 

When you send out an RCS message, you’ll know when it was delivered, if it’s read, and above this, you’ll know when the other person is typing a reply. 

• Group Chats: Unlike SMS’ 10-20 participant limit, you can create a group as large as 100+ participants when you use RCS. Your messages will be end-to-end encrypted. It gets easier to send 100+ MB high-quality media transfers, and everything you send and receive will get synced across the devices you use your RCS messaging app. 

Location and Calling Features

• Enhanced Location Sharing: Share real-time location for easier meetup coordination, with options to share for a set time or permanently, and even share trip details and ETA
• Video and Audio Calling: You’ll be able to make high-definition video and audio calls directly within your messaging app. Apparently, you can switch between audio and video mid-call.  

Analytics and Personalization

• Better Reporting: You will also be able to access the count of people who read the message, including details about the delivery, rate of messages opened and read. 
• Personalized User Experience: Since you will have access to your customer preferences through analytics, you will be able to create personalized automated replies and marketing messages effectively.

Security

• End-to-End Encryption: One thing you’d miss in a regular text message is the security of the conversation. There’s no encryption protocols securing the data. 

Contrastingly, RCS messages can be encrypted making the data unreadable. Unauthorized parties will get unlucky trying to decrypt them. 

RCS vs SMS: What’s the Difference?

RCS and SMS are both used for messaging. However, they differ a lot from each other in terms of capabilities and technical requirements.

Let’s compare them both head on head to understand RCS messages better. 

1. Availability

Both the messaging features are available on most communication devices: 

When you notice a bit closer: RCS is available on Android versions 5.0 (Lollipop) or higher and is now supported until iOS 18. 

On the contrary, SMS is natively supported on almost all mobile devices. 

2. Network Requirements

To send out an RCS message, you’ll either need mobile data or a Wifi connection. This means you’ll only pay for the carrier charges for the mobile data you use and that’s going to cost you only a few bucks. 

In contrast, SMS relies on cellular networks. You may need to purchase a messaging plan separately to send out SMS to others. 

3. Supported Formats

RCS is not only text messaging. You can send and receive images, videos, audio and rich cards. The limit goes up to 100MB.

But SMS is text-only messaging with a character limit of 160. Further downside is you can send only 70 characters in a single message if you use unicode characters like emojis. 

How does RCS compare to other message apps for MMS or OTT

• RCS vs MMS: For people who’d like to go beyond SMS text messaging, MMS is a good option to send and receive multimedia messages. Still, RCS wins the race with interactive messaging components that can work smoothly on browsers, maps and other apps, at highest quality. 

• RCS vs OTT: Did you notice? Facebook wants you to install a separate app called messenger to chat with other users on the platform. 

Unlike Facebook, OTT apps can integrate RCS messaging natively to enable users to communicate with teams or other users without having to leave the app. 

Will RCS replace other Apps?
Why not? RCS can perform common functions like checking balances and placing orders. 
Also using RCS as your company’s primary source of communication requires you to verify the proofs. 
All these put together, it gives customers a sense of trust on your platform, not requiring them to think twice to use your app.

How Businesses Are Using RCS?

Customers engage with RCS better. That’s a good enough reason for businesses to use this as a primary tool for communication. Here are a few of the interesting ways businesses use this feature:

Customer Service

A customer looking for critical support for a service must not wait long hours for a rep to respond. They need instant support, instant attention to the issue and instant resolution. 

An SMS might not be the best form of communication when calling is not an option with the support team. This is where RCS takes its reign with instant messaging capabilities, and exchange of support materials like infographics or instructional videos to assist the customers effectively. 

💡Interesting Fact
Macif, an insurance company, used RCS to have two-way conversations, which re-engaged contacts and increased campaign click-through rate by 100%.

1. Marketing Campaigns

The growth of a business largely depends on its marketing campaigns. Using RCS can be your best bet for this. You can implement RCS in your platform and send out personalized offers and promotional messages. 

When you personalise each message you send, it has the capability to attract an audience, urging them to open the message and instill in their minds about your brand, leading to potential conversions. Subsequently, your repeat customers count and higher engagement rates will increase. 

2. Appointment Reminders

If you are in the healthcare sector, RCS can be a great tool for you to send interactive appointment reminders to patients. They can also use this feature to confirm their appointments, eventually adding them to their calendars when they acknowledge it on the suggested replies.

Besides hospitals and clinics, salons, automotive services and governmental organizations can use RCS to send reminders of their appointments.

3. Order Updates

When your updates get real-time, your customers may feel the tracking process of an order or a service more authentic and trustworthy. 

In recent years, customers are actively checking for the status of their packages. They track them right on the apps they purchase. 

If you own such an app, it would be a best investment to add this real-time tracking feature to make the customer feel included in the process, without leaving them in a blindspot after they’ve spent their hard-earned money on your brand’s product/ service. 

4. Customer Surveys

You’ll need feedback on your brand to identify where to improve and what to eliminate from your strategy. You can use RCS to generate interactive surveys and polls to do this. 

Remember, your customers are your best critic. Use this feature to understand what’s working for them with your business, and what not. 

5. Promotions and Specials

One other useful use case of an RCS message is for updating customers on current sales and promotions. This gives them a feel that you are active in the market. 

You can use these messages to navigate your customers to your website, purchase a product or service directly, or visit your store. 

6. Account Alerts

Beyond marketing your brand, you’ll need  to do something that gives your customers a feeling that you care. 

Use RCS to send fraud alerts, service reminders, offers, payment posting messages or even a quick reminder to change their account password. 

7. Personalized Recommendations

Your users may not know all about your products or services. You can use rich messages to build a clear navigation to target pages or buttons. 

That is to say, you can use the analytics data, understand your customer and personalize the recommendations and lead to more engagement and conversions.

Case Study: Picard used an RCS to create a conversational RCS experience. This campaign helped their customers imagine their holiday menus, taking into account dietary preferences, budget considerations, and even their desire to cook. The platform achieved great results, with a 42% increase in customer engagement and 10% more clicks to the website than Rich SMS.

What’s The Role Of RCS In Your Business?

You’ve read them all. But let’s give it a personal touch.

We’ll go around a list of benefits that RCS messaging can do to your business. 

1. Your Customer Engagement Increases

Your customers need not search through your website to purchase your products or sign up for your services. You can send out a visually appealing message (multimedia) along with a direct link to their device. 

Consequently, users understand it quickly and business can just happen in the blink of an eye. 

2. Many Visitors Convert To Customers

Be it any other form of mobile communication, RCS has a proven record of higher cart values and big-scale conversions, than all of them. 

3. Verified Business Account Builds Trust 

SMS is well-known for spams and cyber-attacks. But a user can feel safe and confident with a RCS message for a verified business account. They know exactly who they’re talking to, as your business will have to go through an intense verification process to register as a business account. That makes people feel safe to communicate with your platform. 

4. You’ll Perform Personalized Branding

When you understand what your customers prefer, you’ll know how to position your business better. Having access to user analytics and behavior on your RCS messaging app makes it easier for you to create content that your users will like, and probably take the next steps with. 

5. Customers Get Support In Real-time

Your customers need not wait a moment when they think they need to talk to your brand. Enable an AI agent with preset questions and replies. In special cases, let these chatbots connect to a human agent and give all the support they need with your brand, right when they need it. This will create a responsive customer experience. 

Add RCS Messaging To Your Apps With MirrorFly In 48 Hrs

If you’re slightly leaning towards the thought of adding RCS to your business strategy, we’d say it’d be a good move! 

This good move can be turned out great if you have a reliable instant messaging solution besides. 

For over 16+ years, MirrorFly has been working with Fortune 500 brands to build their real-time communication systems. RCS messaging is one of their flagship products with 1000+ customizable features. 

Above this, MirrorFly is well-known for its self-hosted messaging solution supporting businesses build their platform on their own servers, or choose MirrorFly’s multi-tenant servers, anything as they prefer. 

With this white-label solution, you get full control over your data and unlimited access to the source code. This means you have all the power to customize the security, features and infrastructure. There’s more you can do with this real-time chat solution! 

Contact the MirrorFly Sales Team for more details on implementing RCS capabilities into your communication strategy. 

How will you use RCS messaging to transform your customer communications in 2025? Let us know in the comments below! 

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Further Reading

• What are Communication APIs and Why are They Needed?
• What is Video Communication? Types, Features, Use Cases
• WebRTC Video Call API: The Definitive Guide
• Build a Flutter Video Calling App with MirrorFly APIs & SDKs
• Build An Android Voice and Video Calling App Using Java

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