Message Wars: iMessage Vs RCS (2024 update)

Púca CEO Eileen Carroll gives her take on Apple’s RCS announcement. This blog originally appeared on LinkedIn.

The big news in tech this November was that Apple have finally announced that they will support RCS (rich communication services) in 2024. This is such major news in our sector I thought I’d better add my voice to the discussion out there.

And yes yes I know… it is tempting to be cynical about the timeline, especially when the GSMA was teasing us with talk of RCS since 2007 – you heard right, that’s SIXTEEN YEARS ago. But when Apple say they’re doing something it usually happens.

I posted another blog back in 2019 to update our clients about how Google were taking on the responsibility of bringing RCS technology to market. But of course the RBM programme was still not supported by Apple at the time, so it’s taken a long while for RCS to get to a tipping point of availability and demand.

But I think we’re nearly there now.

Gif courtesy of TheVerge.com

The SMS to RCS transition

SMS has been a ubiquitous and powerful communication channel and at Púca we have been empowering our enterprise and brand clients with this technology for some twenty years now. While SMS isn’t going anywhere just yet, in the coming years we anticipate that many clients will opt for RCS delivery where available to enhance the user experience.

RCS has quite a few advantages that will enhance messaging user experiences, I have listed some of these below.

What’s so good about RCS?

• Verified sender ID for registered brands and companies so users can trust that the message isn’t a smishing attempt
• Brands and businesses can incorporate interactive rich media content within a messaging flow – e.g. video, click to call, place an order, make a payment etc
• Unlike Over the Top messaging platforms like Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger, RCS features will be available in your native messaging app
• Like SMS, RCS can deliver via cellular network channels, making it more accessible than these Over the Top services

With all these advantages it’s great news that we can add another string to our bow with RCS services for our clients in 2024.