Channel trends: The RCS effect

The headline story for RCS in 2024 was growth.

After reporting a 358% increase in RCS traffic in 2023 we were expecting more of the same, but 2024 overdelivered with a further 550% bump in one calendar year.

That makes a 9x increase in only two years.

Exponential RCS growth is a global trend. Apart from specific countries where there is limited carrier support for RCS, we are seeing a significant increase across all regions.

14x

North America

8x

India

4x

Africa

295%

LATAM

100%

APAC

Experience underpins everything we do – we want our customers to have engaging, personalized, and elevated digital interactions with us through their mobile phone. Leaning on Infobip’s RCS expertise has enabled us to deliver campaigns that don’t just result in strong delivery rates but give our customers more choice and more opportunities to engage.

Graham Anderson

Product Lead, Virgin Media O2

This trend can be attributed to three main factors

Rich messaging features at a lower price

RCS Business Messaging is considered the next step in the evolution of SMS. It is used for both P2P and A2P communication and combines the reach of SMS through MNOs, with the rich-messaging features that people enjoy with messaging apps like WhatsApp and Messenger, but at a lower cost.  

Apple now supports RCS on iOS

Apple rolled out support for RCS with the release of iOS 18 in September 2024. Now as a native channel on both Apple and Android devices, RCS Business Messaging has the potential to match the reach of SMS paired with the rich messaging features similar to WhatsApp and other OTT channels.

Conversational suitability

With a global trend for a more conversational stye of B2C communication, brands have identified that RCS is ideally suited to two-way rich messaging at all stages of the customer journey, but particularly in the discovery phase with the option to include image carousels and videos in messages.

Customer stories

What was the impact of Apple support for RCS?

We were excited to crunch the numbers for the full year to discover just how much difference Apple’s support for RCS would make when it released iOS 18 in September 2024.

Even before Apple jumped aboard the RCS train, the volumes of traffic on our platform in 2023 and the first part of 2024 indicated that brands were investing heavily in the channel.

But what exactly would the impact of the Apple effect be?

Turns out, it was significant in most regions but massive in markets with high levels of carrier support for RCS on iPhone.

The global trend can be clearly seen when comparing RCS traffic in the first three months of the year with the last three months (after iOS 18 was released in September).

RCS message volumes Q1 vs Q4 2024:

Why are brands investing so heavily in RCS?

Quite simply, RCS is taking off in the US market because it works.

  • The branded and verified experience of RCS inspires buyer confidence, reducing hesitation.
  • Rich cards pique interest with interactive visuals and relevant offers, capturing attention before routing buyers to the site.
  • Prospective customers arrive on your website already engaged, resulting in stronger purchase intent and better outcomes.

In our holiday A/B tests, comparing MMS to RCS rich cards (using the same images, text, and links), brands experienced a 60-70% higher conversion rate with RCS.That’s conversions—not just clicks.

James Brown

North American Director of Strategic Partnerships, Infobip

Multiple clients and partners experienced the “Wow, this really works” moment with RCS

For example, in Europe we worked with a top digital agency in France, Digitaleo, whose client, a high-end motorcycle retailer, was looking to boost customer engagement and interest ahead of a flagship store opening.

The agency devised a clever campaign that leaned on the strengths of both RCS and SMS as well as email to reach as many people as possible with personalized messages. The main differentiator was that the RCS messages containing image carousels and links to open brochures for detailed information about the motorcycles.

Due to the nature of the campaign, it was possible to accurately measure the effectiveness of the RCS messages in comparison with other channels.

72% open rate

Significantly higher than typical email open rates (20–30%) and trackable in a way that SMS open rates aren’t.

Lower cost per click

Despite costing slightly more per send than SMS, the cost per click for RCS was 14 times lower.

Fewer messages, more conversions

Only one-third of the RCS messages were needed to match the same conversions of the SMS campaign.

Recognizing the importance of secure rich messaging, we have implemented RCS for Business powered by Infobip to enhance the richness and interactivity of our customer communication. Along with RCS’s multimedia capabilities, our verified sender profile helps us to strengthen our brand identity and encourages trust and confidence in our customers as they always know that messages are from us. We’re excited to explore the potential of RCS with Infobip to create secure conversational experiences for our customers.

Raz Razaq

Domain Manager, Customer Contact Experience Technology, Next

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