Nearly half of surveyed mobile industry professionalsalready use RCS, the successor to traditional SMS. Among them, a significant majority (60%) report RCS having an ‘overwhelmingly positive’ impact on their customer communications. That’s according to new research conducted among attendees at Mobile World Congress 2025 by Twilio.
RCS rationale
This reported high uptake is bringing a range of benefits to businesses including better user experience (53%), enhanced media sharing (29%), and increased trust via verified sender (18%), establishing a richer, more credible form of customer communication. Branded profiles and verified sender badges remove customer doubt when receiving and clicking links in RCS messages, while embedded images, video, audio, and branding, alongside hyper-tailored personalisation, make for more engaging interactions.
Respondents shared positive ways RCS could impact their customer communications, including increased security (37%), streamlined communications with customers (25%), fostering deeper, more engaging relationships with customers (17%), driving high ROI (11%), and deepening trust with customers (10%).
RCS Adoption
Although 56% of respondents have yet to implement RCS, it’s on a positive upward trajectory. In the next 12 months alone, for instance, nearly three quarters (71%) of the surveyed industry professionals at MWC plan to adopt RCS, indicative of increasing confidence and demand. While 14% intend to implement RCS in all interactions where possible, 20% will do so for most interactions, and 37% will for selected interactions.
While RCS is gaining traction, a lack of organisational knowledge is holding almost a third (30%) of respondents’ organisations back from rolling it out. This highlights the need for better education on RCS applications, benefits, and how to integrate them into existing infrastructure.
Matt McCormack, Director, ANZ Communications Business at Twilio said: “While SMS remains popular among Australians, brands increasingly recognise the need for a more sophisticated solution that will allow them to communicate with customers in a useful, personalised and engaging way. RCS, soon to become available here, is set to revolutionise how brands interact with customers and drive greater engagement, conversion and brand loyalty.”
RCS unpacked
- Applications: There are endless opportunities to deploy RCS in customer communications, including for customer support, personalised offers, promotional campaigns, appointment scheduling, feedback surveys, and order updates.
- User Experience: RCS offers enhanced messaging features, such as high-quality photos, videos, and GIFs, and supports longer messages without the 160-character limit of SMS.
- Interaction Rates: RCS includes interactive elements like buttons, carousels, and suggested replies, creating a seamless, shoppable experience that significantly improves customer interaction and conversion. This allows businesses to send larger media files and more visually compelling content.
- Security and Trust: With RCS offering branded messaging, verified sender IDs, and encryption, enhanced security, confidence, and trust are also major benefits.
- Improved deliverability: RCS can be sent over any Internet connection, which means far lower chances of missed deliveries and delays between messages being sent and them being opened by users.
- A broad reach: Users don’t need to download a new app or set up a new account; they can receive an RCS message just as they would any other text message. Even if a user’s device doesn’t support RCS, the message will automatically be sent as an SMS.
- Analytics: RCS provides businesses with detailed delivery and read receipts alongside other analytics, ensuring brands can track and analyse message effectiveness and optimise communication strategies.