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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.)
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
“[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.”
“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: 
“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.
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.
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.
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