RCS Business Messaging

RCS business messaging gives the plain text channel a verified brand identity, rich media and interactive replies inside the default messaging app on most Android phones, and increasingly on iOS. You launch it by submitting a verified agent profile, then use rich cards and suggested replies once approved, with SMS fallback configured so delivery never depends on RCS support alone.

Availability is country- and carrier-dependent. RCS is not universally available. Support depends on the destination country, the recipient's mobile carrier and their device, and coverage changes market by market. Viber and LINE availability also varies by country. Confirm the channel is available in every country you plan to send to before you build a customer-facing flow on it, and always configure SMS fallback for the recipients RCS can't reach.

What RCS actually is

Where SMS is limited to 160 characters of plain text, RCS is a modern messaging protocol carriers and device makers have standardized on to replace it. Messages sent through an approved RCS agent show your brand name, logo and a verified badge — similar in spirit to a WhatsApp Business verified account — and support images, video, carousels of cards, and buttons that trigger a reply or an action like opening a URL or dialing a number. Read receipts and typing indicators are available too, so conversations feel closer to a native chat app than to legacy texting.

Launching a verified agent

Before you can send a single RCS message, your brand needs to exist as a registered "agent" with the messaging ecosystem. This involves submitting your brand name, logo, brand colour, a short description of what the agent is used for, and verified contact details. That submission goes through a verification process that confirms you're a legitimate business entitled to use the brand assets you've submitted.

Once verification clears, carrier launch follows — and this is the part with the least predictability. Different carriers in different markets roll out RCS agent support on their own timelines, so an agent that's fully verified can still take additional time to go fully live everywhere your customers are. Budget for this variability rather than treating RCS as a same-day channel the way SMS effectively is.

What you can send once live

• Rich cards and carousels — a single product, offer or update presented with an image, headline, description and one or more action buttons, or several cards swipeable in sequence.
• Images and video — sent inline, rendered natively in the recipient's messaging app rather than as a link.
• Suggested replies — tappable quick-response chips the recipient can use instead of typing, useful for simple yes/no or menu-style flows.
• Suggested actions — buttons that dial a number, open a map location, or launch a URL directly from the message.
• Read receipts and typing indicators — the same real-time feedback users expect from modern chat apps, which SMS never had.

These capabilities make RCS well suited to order updates, appointment reminders with a one-tap confirm button, and product showcases — anywhere a plain text message would have needed a follow-up link.

Configuring fallback

Not every handset, carrier or market supports RCS yet, and support is inconsistent enough on iOS in particular that you should never treat RCS as guaranteed delivery. Configure automatic SMS fallback in your instance settings so that any message which can't be delivered as RCS is automatically resent as plain SMS instead. This means a single send to a mixed list of Android and iPhone recipients, or to recipients on different carriers, still reaches everyone — some as rich RCS cards, some as plain text.

Because of this mixed delivery, expect your delivery reports on any sizeable RCS send to show a split: a portion delivered as RCS, a portion that fell back to SMS. That split is normal and expected, not a sign of a broken integration — it reflects real-world device and carrier coverage rather than anything wrong with your setup.

Billing

RCS message traffic is metered pass-through the same way SMS and WhatsApp traffic is, billed against your own Infobip account. The optional $50/month Arino Core connection covers Arino support, management, updates and WebRTC, but not message volume. See billing-and-plans for current rates.

Frequently asked