Brands Are Betting on RCS to Fix Broken Text Messaging, and Get You Clicking Again

Text messages used to be the Swiss Army knife of customer communication: order confirmations, appointment reminders, one-time security codes. Then scammers hijacked the channel, flooding phones with fake delivery alerts and phony bank warnings, training Americans to treat every link like a trap.

Now marketers and customer-service teams are pushing a new standard called RCS, short for Rich Communication Services, hoping it can restore trust in mobile messaging by making legitimate business texts look and feel verifiably real. Think of it as “SMS, but with receipts”: a confirmed sender, a brand logo, rich images, and tappable buttons that replace sketchy shortened URLs.

Industry groups say RCS messages are being read at rates between 70% and 85%, with “opens” around 80%, numbers that dwarf typical email open rates, which often land under 20%.

Google’s “verified sender” push is the trust play

The biggest shift isn’t the graphics, it’s identity. Traditional SMS makes it easy to spoof a sender name or number, which is why phishing texts have exploded. With RCS, businesses go through a verification process so a branded profile shows up directly in the conversation.

Google has been a major driver of that ecosystem on Android, pushing verified business messaging so users can immediately see who’s contacting them. The goal is simple: reduce ambiguity at the exact moment someone decides whether to engage or ignore.

One CRM leader at a large services company, identified only as Marc, put it bluntly: with SMS, customers are asked to take a leap of faith; with RCS, they’re shown proof. It’s not a cure-all, but it can lower the “this feels fake” reflex that scammers have hardwired into consumers.

Still, security is only part of the equation. A verified badge won’t save a brand that spams too often, targets poorly, or pushes overly aggressive offers. Trust is also built, or destroyed, by tone, timing, and restraint.

Marketers tout ~80% open rates, and higher click-throughs

Messaging pros in France have been circulating a headline metric: RCS open rates around 80%. That’s comparable to the old-school strength of SMS, people tend to read texts, but the real problem today isn’t reading. It’s clicking.

RCS is designed to turn attention into action without triggering the “suspicious link” alarm. Campaigns often cite click-through rates of 15% to 30% for RCS, compared with roughly 4% to 7% for traditional SMS. The difference comes down to built-in call-to-action buttons and richer layouts, product cards, images, even carousels, so the message becomes a step in the customer journey, not just a nudge to visit a website.

Here’s how that looks in real life: a retailer texts “Your order is ready” with a pickup link. The customer reads it, hesitates, and decides to deal with it later. In RCS, that same message can show a verified brand name, a “View pickup location” button, a “Call” button, and a map preview, less friction, less doubt, more follow-through.

But the metrics can mislead. A high click rate might reflect great design, or a tiny, highly qualified audience, or a one-off campaign. As Marc warned, a badly targeted RCS blast can still get a reaction, just not the one you want. RCS upgrades the container, not the strategy.

Why buttons and previews are beating the “SMS with a link”

The “text message with a link” has become a symbol of modern anxiety: a short, impersonal note plus a shortened URL, and you have about one second to decide whether you’re about to get scammed.

RCS tries to replace that moment of doubt with transparency. Instead of a raw link, users see clear buttons and visual previews of what’s next. A widely cited Google study from 2024 found 73% of users were more likely to tap an RCS button with a preview than click a standard SMS link.

That matters for everyday service moments: “Confirm” or “Reschedule” for an appointment reminder, “Track package” with a map preview for a delivery update, or “Talk to an agent” versus “Read FAQs” for support. Done well, it can reduce pressure on more expensive channels like phone support and email.

But RCS isn’t magic anti-fraud armor. Verified senders can reduce impersonation, yet brands can still misconfigure flows, get their processes compromised, or send users to slow, broken mobile pages that erase the advantage instantly.

Apple’s iOS 18 support could make RCS feel mainstream

For years, RCS carried an “Android-only” reputation. That’s changing as Apple adds RCS support in iOS 18, a move that could reshape how brands plan messaging in markets where iPhone dominates.

French adoption projections cited in the ecosystem suggest iPhones compatible with RCS could rise quickly through 2025, 15% in January, 35% in March, 60% in June, reaching 80% by December. The broader point for U.S. readers: once iPhone support is widespread, RCS starts to look like a truly universal replacement for the SMS link.

In the meantime, brands are leaning on “fallback” delivery: send RCS when a device supports it, and automatically drop back to SMS when it doesn’t. That lets companies test richer experiences without sacrificing reach.

Compatibility, though, doesn’t guarantee adoption. Carrier settings, user preferences, and the gravitational pull of WhatsApp, Messenger, and other apps still shape behavior. RCS has one big advantage, it doesn’t require downloading a separate app, but it still has to prove it won’t add more noise to people’s phones.

RCS is turning into a mini customer-service portal, powered by AI

RCS is often pitched as a “mini-app” inside your default messaging inbox. Companies like DialOnce are promoting use cases that go beyond marketing: interactive appointment reminders, enriched order confirmations, and delivery tracking with dynamic maps and action buttons.

The payoff is fewer steps. Instead of “Your package is arriving, click here,” an RCS message can show a delivery window and offer buttons like “Change date” or “Leave instructions.” For businesses, every interaction handled in-message can mean fewer calls. For customers, it feels faster, and more in control.

The next layer is conversational AI. Brands are increasingly using chatbots inside RCS threads to answer questions instantly, collect an order number, and route users to “Return” or “Exchange” with a tap. It’s personalization at scale, but it comes with a risk: when AI gets it wrong in a channel that feels direct and personal, frustration spikes fast.

Marc drew a hard line: replace a human with a bot and don’t offer an escape hatch, and you’ve built a wall. If RCS is going to sell “trust,” it has to include a clear path to a real person, especially for billing disputes, fraud concerns, and other high-stakes issues.