RCS 101: the phone's own messaging app, with a brand name and buttons

RCS (Rich Communication Services) is the mobile industry's successor to SMS. The GSMA, the association of mobile operators, defines it in a shared specification called the Universal Profile¹. It works inside the phone's built-in messaging app. In its business form, which Google calls RCS for Business (also known as RCS Business Messaging, or RBM), messages arrive from a verified brand with its name and logo, and can carry images, rich cards, carousels and suggested replies³.

The idea is simple: keep the phone number as the address, keep the app people already open every day, and add what chat apps made normal. The catch is that a rich message only arrives as RCS when every link in the chain supports it.

1. You register an agent. The "agent" is your brand's identity on RCS: name, logo, colours, a description and contact details³. Brand verification comes first and is done once per agent, however many networks you launch on; once the agent is verified and launched, Google Messages shows a verification checkmark beside its name²⁴.
2. You launch it network by network. Approval is given per operator. Where Google manages the launch, Google says approval typically takes one to three business days once the brand has confirmed by email; where the operator manages it, each operator may contact the brand itself, and some require a direct agreement first²⁵.
3. You check capability. Before each send, the provider asks whether this number can receive business RCS right now. The answer depends on the handset, the operator and the person's settings, and it changes, so it is checked at send time rather than stored.
4. The rich message travels over the phone's data connection through the operator's RCS service and appears in the default messaging app, with your verified name at the top of the thread¹³.
5. Events come back, and anything that cannot go as RCS goes as SMS. RCS can report delivered and read, and which button the person tapped; SMS can only report delivered. The fallback is an ordinary text with all of SMS's limits on length and script (see SMS 101).

What a rich message can hold

• Rich cards and carousels: an image or video, a title, a short description and buttons, alone or in a swipeable row³.
• Suggested replies and actions: chips the person taps instead of typing, such as "Confirm", "Reschedule", "Track parcel", "Call us" or "Open map"³.
• Read status: whether the message was read, if the person has not turned it off.

How it differs from a chat app

RCS is not an app people download, and there is no separate account: the address is the phone number, and the conversation sits in the same thread as the person's texts. That is its advantage over chat apps, which reach only people who installed them, and its constraint, because the operator, not the business or the app maker alone, decides whether the rich version can be delivered. It also means a customer who has never heard of RCS can receive it without doing anything.

RCS was an industry specification for more than a decade before it became a practical channel for businesses.

• The operator years. In 2008 the GSMA took over an industry initiative, begun by operators and equipment makers, to define a common upgrade to SMS: the Rich Communication Suite¹⁴. Early versions did not work the same way on every network.
• Google steps in. In September 2015 Google bought Jibe Mobile, a company that built RCS technology for operators, and said Android would adopt RCS¹⁵. In November 2016 the GSMA's Universal Profile, one shared version of the specification for every network, had its first launch: Sprint in the United States, with Google, backed by 58 operators, device makers and operating-system providers¹⁶. The GSMA has published new versions of the profile regularly since¹.
• China's "5G messaging". In April 2020 China's three state-owned operators, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, published a white paper committing to RCS-based "5G messaging" on compatible phones, built on the Universal Profile and backed by major handset makers¹⁷.
• Android's default. In August 2023 Google made RCS the default for new and existing users of its Messages app¹⁸. By March 2024 Google had reported more than one billion monthly active users with RCS in Google Messages¹⁹.
• The iPhone. When Apple added RCS in iOS 18 in September 2024, RCS stopped being, in many markets, a feature that worked only between Android phones².
• Encryption. In March 2025 the GSMA published Universal Profile 3.0, which defines end-to-end encryption for RCS messages and files²¹, together with specifications based on the Messaging Layer Security (MLS) protocol so that encryption works between apps from different companies⁵. In May 2026 Apple and Google began rolling out encrypted chats between iPhone and Android in beta⁸²³.
• Newer profiles. Universal Profile 4.0, announced in March 2026, added video calls started from inside a conversation, richer text formatting and business features such as video inside rich cards and control over how links open⁶. Universal Profile 4.1, in July 2026, focused on making encryption work reliably between different apps⁷.

Two things have not changed. RCS still runs through operators, so reach is decided network by network. And business messaging is still business messaging: approval, consent and content rules apply.

The potential audience is large. The GSMA counts about 5.8 billion unique mobile subscribers, around 70% of the world's population¹³, and every one has a phone number that RCS can address in principle. Google has published two figures for actual use: more than one billion monthly active users with RCS in Google Messages, reported by March 2024¹⁹, and more than one billion RCS messages a day in the United States alone, as a 28-day average, in May 2025²⁰. Both count people's chats as well as business messages, and capable phones rather than people a business can reach.

In practice a rich business message reaches a person only after three gates²³:

That is why reach differs so much by place. On the iPhone, RCS needs a carrier that supports it, and Apple says availability varies by region and carrier²². For business messages, Google's partner documentation treats every launch carrier by carrier, some managed by Google and some by the operator²⁵. We found no official, public list of the countries and networks where business RCS is live, and no independent, dated figures for business reach by region. Ask providers for reach per operator, in your countries, and for business messages specifically.

The pattern by region, in general terms:

• Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia-Pacific alike: the questions are the same everywhere: which operators have launched business messaging, on which phones, and how long approval takes. The answers are market by market.
• China: the three operators' 5G messaging is their own RCS-based service, set out in their 2020 white paper¹⁷; check it with providers who work with those operators.
• Where chat apps dominate: in markets where most people already message businesses on a chat app, RCS competes with an app people chose; where SMS is still the default for businesses, RCS upgrades a channel people already rely on.

RCS pays where a message replaces an interaction:

• Notifications with an action: a delivery update with "Track" and "Change day" buttons.
• Booking and no-shows: a reminder with "Confirm" and "Reschedule" chips.
• Commerce: order confirmations, boarding passes and tickets as cards.
• Marketing: offers as carousels, with consent.
• Support: a conversation with a verified brand, handed to a person when needed.
• One-time codes: possible, but they gain little. A code is six digits; reach and speed matter more than presentation.

A verified sender is a benefit on its own. SMS has no strong sender authentication, which is why scammers imitate banks and parcel firms by text. With RCS for Business, the brand is verified before launch and shown with a checkmark²⁴.

Google's billing documentation for operators sets out two models: a standard model used outside the United States, and a separate US model⁴¹⁰.

• Outside the US. An agent is either non-conversational, billed per message, or conversational, billed per 24-hour conversation. Messages are recorded as basic (text only, 160 characters or fewer) or single (rich content, or longer text). On 20 November 2025 Google merged its older Basic Message and Single Message agent categories into one Non-conversational category, and it began moving existing agents across on 16 March 2026⁴.
• In the US. The price follows the content, not the agent's category: a rich message carries text, suggested replies or certain suggested actions; a rich media message carries media, rich cards, carousels or more complex actions. For a conversational agent, once four rich or rich media messages, at least two from the person and at least one from the business, are exchanged within 24 hours, all the messages in that window are billed as one session. US carriers set the prices¹⁰.

Two other costs are easy to miss:

• The fallback is paid at SMS rates. Every message that cannot go as RCS goes as SMS, billed per segment (see SMS 101).
• Approval can carry a fee. In the US, The Campaign Registry's April 2026 guide lists an RBM vet at $75⁹.

There is no public universal rate card. Ask each provider for prices per country and operator, how conversations are counted, and how fallback is billed and reported.

This is a summary, not legal advice.

• Verification and approval before sending. Each agent's brand is verified, then approved for launch on each network; operators can decline brands or use cases³²⁵. Google says that for certain carriers, launching will require a valid verification token issued by a recognised verification authority²⁴. Plan for verification and approval per country, before the launch date, not as part of it.
• Platform policies. Content and conduct rules for business messaging are set out in Google's RCS for Business documentation and enforced through approval³.
• Consent. RCS marketing is marketing to a phone number. In the EU, the ePrivacy Directive defines "electronic mail" as any text, voice, sound or image message sent over a public network that can be stored until collected, and requires prior consent for direct marketing by electronic mail¹¹. In the UK, the ICO expects specific consent for each type of electronic marketing, asked separately¹². The safe course everywhere is to treat RCS marketing exactly like SMS marketing, with the same opt-in and opt-out records.
• The person's own controls. On an iPhone, people can turn off RCS business messages in the Messages settings²².
• Sender registration you already hold still matters. Your SMS fallback uses an SMS sender, so the SMS registration rules in each country apply to it; see SMS 101 and sender registration around the world.
• Data protection. Business RCS messages pass through operators and platform providers; the privacy notices and data-processing terms of each apply. The end-to-end encryption rolling out in 2026 covers person-to-person chats⁸, and on the iPhone only when every participant's carrier supports it²³.

• Partial reach. A share of your audience will always get SMS. If the SMS version does not stand alone, part of your audience receives an afterthought.
• Stale capability flags. Whether a number supports RCS changes when people change phones or operators. Check at send time; treat "unknown" as "no".
• People can opt out of the rich version. iPhone users can switch RCS business messages off²², so they receive your fallback instead.
• Feature mismatch. A new feature in the specification reaches people only when apps and operators ship it⁶⁷.
• Blended reporting. Mixing RCS and SMS results into one average describes nobody. Report them separately.
• Comparing different audiences. RCS recipients may own newer phones on better-served networks. Compare rich and plain within the RCS-capable group, at random.
• Approval delays. Launch dates slip when verification and per-network approval are treated as launch tasks rather than prerequisites²⁵.
• An unregistered fallback. If the SMS sender behind your RCS programme is not registered in a country, the fallback is filtered or blocked there, and the customers you most needed to reach miss the message.
• Assuming read receipts. People can turn read status off, so "not read" may mean "read, but not reported". Measure taps and outcomes, not reads alone.

• Features in the specification. Universal Profile 4.0 brings in-chat video calls, richer formatting, video in rich cards and link control⁶; 4.1 strengthens encryption between apps⁷. Both reach people as apps and operators implement them.
• Encryption across platforms. Encrypted iPhone–Android chats began rolling out in beta in May 2026, for person-to-person messages; Apple says support comes with supported carriers and will roll out over time⁸²³.
• Verification tokens. Google has said that launching on certain carriers will require a token from a recognised verification authority²⁴.
• More operators. Business messaging availability continues to expand network by network; there is no single date to wait for, so check your own markets with providers.

Choose RCS to upgrade messages you already send by SMS when a button or a picture changes what people do, and when your customers' networks support business messaging. Keep codes and urgent alerts on the simplest path. To compare it with the other fifteen channels, see which channel for what.

Four questions for a provider

• On which operators in our countries can you deliver business RCS today, and to which phones?
• How long do verification and launch approval take in each country, and who handles them?
• How do you bill rich messages, conversations and SMS fallback, country by country?
• Is fallback automatic, configurable per message type, and reported separately from RCS?

See the RCS channel page, and read what RCS changed and RCS in an existing SMS programme.