Over the past decade, texting has become an essential support channel for modern contact centers. For good reason: it’s fast, convenient, asynchronous, and allows you to connect with customers via a device that’s rarely out of their reach.
But today, audiences expect a richer, more immersive, and more trustworthy texting experience. Fortunately, there is a newer protocol called rich communication services (RCS) that promises to deliver just that.
Here’s why contact center leaders should familiarize themselves with RCS as soon as possible.
What Is RCS?
RCS is a communications protocol that powers more interactive and modern texting experiences directly within a contact’s native messaging app. It supports high-resolution images and videos, customizable buttons, typing indicators, read receipts, and more.
RCS rivals the look and feel of conversations in over-the-top (OTT) messaging applications like WhatsApp without requiring users to download anything new. And since you can communicate more information (and even share files), it can help increase agent efficiency while slashing resolution times.
Beyond those engagement and productivity-boosting features, RCS also helps tackle one of text messaging’s biggest weaknesses: earning a recipient’s trust.
Thanks to verified sender profiles, where senders have been verified and approved by the individual telecom carriers and Google, messages arrive via a branded RCS agent, which displays a brand’s logo, colors, and a verified checkmark (rather than a random, faceless phone number).
In an era of rising impersonation scams and text-based fraud, having this visual assurance can give contact center agents instant credibility.
RCS...supports high-resolution images and videos, customizable buttons, typing indicators, read receipts, and more.
Plus, RCS lets you track more performance metrics than traditional texting. In addition to delivery stats, you’ll have insight into behavioral analytics like opens, clicks, and conversion rates. This can be incredibly useful when you want to determine which types of message content drive the best results.
Why Is RCS Suddenly So Important?
We say RCS is newer because, although it’s been around for a while (mobile users in the U.K. and EU have been using RCS for almost a decade); the North American rollout (U.S. and Canada) has been much slower.
Fortunately, now that major carriers have aligned on standards and Apple has given the green light to RCS with the release of iOS 18, we’ve seen a massive wave of adoption.
Additionally, as businesses clamor to adopt the new protocol and beat out their competition, it has recently become a popular topic of conversation in marketing circles.
In other words, if it seems like everyone is suddenly talking about RCS, you’re not imagining it. And we expect interest to grow even more in the second half of 2026 and into next year.
How RCS Compares to Other Channels
As a contact center pro, you’re probably wondering why you need RCS when you already have SMS texting, email, voice calls, and in-app messaging at your disposal. Do you really need to train your agents on yet another communication tool?
The truth is that RCS isn’t a new channel to master, nor is it a replacement for any of the channels you’re already using. Instead, it’s a complementary method and an essential part of any modern omnichannel strategy.
Here’s how it compares to other channels.
SMS
SMS is the universal texting protocol, meaning it’s supported by nearly every carrier and mobile device worldwide. But while SMS supports only text-based messages, as I noted earlier, RCS also supports high-quality visual content, more interactive features, and verified brand profiles (also see FIGURE).
Email
Email can be useful for communicating a large amount of information at once, but texting drives significantly higher open rates. And because RCS also allows you to include attachments, it’s an excellent tool for real-time conversations and more actionable follow-ups.
Voice
There’s no denying voice calls are still essential for those more emotion-driven, high-stakes moments. But in situations where customers are looking for a more asynchronous experience (without hold times), RCS offers contact centers a low-cost, high-engagement way to meet customer needs.
In-app messaging
Apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger can be great for supporting customers who use those tools regularly. But RCS delivers equally immersive experiences for contacts who prefer their native texting apps.
SMS + RCS: The Future Is Hybrid
As RCS gains traction in the business world, more of our customers have been asking whether it will replace SMS. And our constant refrain is loud and clear: no. Not anytime soon.
Although RCS coverage has grown substantially over the past couple of years, it’s still not supported by every carrier and device.
So, if you were to rely entirely on RCS for texting, you’d inadvertently limit your reach. (We imagine the customers who still depend on SMS wouldn’t be too happy to discover they could no longer engage with support teams via text.)
Since SMS is universal, it’s important that you don’t count it out. Instead, we always recommend a hybrid approach where you set up SMS as your fallback.
Here’s what that looks like in action:
Suppose an agent supports a customer via a voice call and promises to follow up with some additional documents sent via text. They message the customer via RCS with an image carousel, and each image links to a separate PDF.
If the customer can’t receive RCS messages, the system will fall back to SMS and send the message in text-only format.
Depending on the texting platform your contact center uses, you may be able to set up a fallback version of the message. For example, since an SMS recipient wouldn’t be able to receive the carousel linking to PDFs, you might include a link to a page that contains all of the files.
SMS fallback then serves as a safety net to ensure everyone can receive your message, regardless of their device or carrier.
RCS Challenges
RCS offers some incredible features and benefits, but it isn’t perfect. Just like all communication methods, it has a couple of limitations and drawbacks.
Availability and reach
RCS adoption is growing fast. But, because it’s not yet universally adopted, you will likely always have at least a small portion of your audience that can’t receive these messages. (Which is why it’s critical you use SMS as a fallback.)
Operational complexity
The visual richness you enjoy with RCS also takes additional effort and tech. Creating these assets often requires careful coordination with other departments, and you’ll also need to make sure you have the right texting platform in place.
Although RCS coverage has grown substantially over the past couple of years, it's still not supported by every carrier and device.
Ideally, you’ll want to work with a provider that has expertise in both SMS and RCS and offers a user-friendly interface with a shorter learning curve (so you can get agents up to speed more quickly).
RCS Success Best Practices
Since RCS is still relatively new, contact centers are often unsure how to get started. Should you dive in headfirst or take a slower, more methodical approach?
The answer depends on your resources, immediate goals, and the clients you serve. But, in general, here are three things I always recommend.
1. Get your verified sender status ASAP
Generally, it takes eight to 10 weeks to get approval from the major telecom carriers and Google for your RCS agent; some carriers may take longer than others.
We always recommend that our customers begin the registration process as soon as possible, even if they aren’t quite prepared to launch an RCS campaign. This way, once they’re ready to begin using RCS in earnest, they can hit the ground running with a verified, branded presence.
2. Plan for a progressive rollout
As with any new communication method or channel, it’s a good idea to test your effort with one or two use cases first, such as order tracking, customer onboarding, or a short-term campaign.
This allows you to familiarize yourself with RCS and work out any kinks in your process before you commit to it across the board.
3. Invest in the right platform and infrastructure
A lot of a company’s success with RCS comes down to having the right tools and technology in place.
Choosing a reliable platform will make a tremendous difference in how quickly and easily you can spin up your RCS program. And a great RCS partner will help you handle the registration process and support you in addressing security and compliance, too.
For contact center leaders, the message is clear: RCS adoption is accelerating, and customers are hungry for richer, more engaging, and more trustworthy experiences. Organizations that invest in the right expertise and technology today will be best positioned to take the lead in the months ahead.