Early results show subscribers are ready and excited to interact with the brands they love using Attentive RCS. Now, we’re opening beta access to brands looking to capitalize on the next generation of text messaging.

While RCS (Rich Communication Services) has been around since 2008, 2024 marked a pivotal moment for businesses when Apple announced support for RCS Business Messaging. This opened up a huge portion of the US market and sped up RCS adoption across major US phone carriers.

This industry shift set the stage for a major refresh of existing text technology, moving beyond the limitations of SMS and MMS. Google partnered with Attentive to bring RCS to life for businesses, building on our decade-long leadership in SMS marketing.

As the platform that pioneered SMS marketing with industry-leading tools, we’re committed to building RCS Business Messaging capabilities for our customers quickly and effectively. Building on our extensive SMS and MMS expertise, we’re elevating messaging with more trustworthy, effective, and enjoyable experiences than ever.

RCS is part of the Attentive suite, alongside SMS, email, and AI. And now we’re moving into the next phase of RCS Business Messaging: the Attentive RCS Beta. 

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How is RCS different from SMS?

RCS is the next generation of text messaging and brings new capabilities to mobile marketing. But if you’re new to RCS or want a refresher, let’s start by going over the key differences between RCS and SMS.

Short Message Service (SMS) is a type of text message that’s sent over the carriers’ cellular networks, meaning you don’t need a data connection to send or receive SMS messages. MMS has expanded the available feature set, but still operates under significant file size restrictions due to the carrier network limitations. Both of these protocols rely on technology that’s over 25 years old and haven't kept pace with the advancements we’ve seen during that time in other marketing channels.

RCS represents a fundamental shift to messaging. This new protocol enables functionality that wasn’t possible with SMS and MMS, like rich-media sharing, interactive buttons, and streamlined checkout experiences. It works using carriers’ data networks instead of cellular networks, allowing it to more than triple the maximum file size of a message—from 500kB on MMS to 10MB on RCS.

And as RCS has been adopted across Android and iOS devices, it works across the vast majority of smartphones in the US. So brands will be able to deliver consistent, enhanced messaging experiences to their entire subscriber base, regardless of device type.

Similar to how SMS and MMS are defined, there are two types of RCS messages: Rich Messages and Rich Media Messages.

Rich Messages are limited to 160 characters like SMS, but come with the benefits of brand verification, suggested replies, default-off but toggle-able read receipts, and tappable CTAs.

‍Rich Media Messages opens up a host of capabilities for more engaging and interactive messages, including longer messages, carousels, videos, rich media cards, and more.

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Features of RCS:

• Rich media experiences: Add image carousels, GIFs, video, audio, or even documents to your messages. Rich media messages are designed to mirror interactive content types seen across other advertising channels (i.e. Social Media). This allows you to create consistent, branded, and interactive experiences with your customers, regardless of how they choose to interact with your brand.
• Suggested replies and actions: Unlock interactive and conversational experiences and replace error-prone keyword responses with simple, single-tap action buttons. Customers can easily share preferences and take action without typing, enabling more intuitive conversational commerce and better personalization.
• Verified, branded messaging: Brands using RCS get verified by carriers, so every conversation can be trusted by consumers. Message threads display your name and logo automatically, so customers can easily identify your brand without needing to save your contact card. Pre-populated brand information like website links and customer service channels make it easier for customers to interact with your brand. 

All of this new functionality enables brands to create dynamic shopping experiences—letting consumers browse, add to cart, and check out right within their messaging app. 

These frictionless interactions also build trust and simplify the shopping experience, helping brands increase conversions, reduce cart abandonment, and drive repeat purchases.

The results? Early Attentive RCS adopters are seeing significant lift to conversions and revenue by leveraging these unique capabilities.

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Watch Now: RCS Explained—Frequently Asked Questions and Best Practices (Part 2)

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FragranceNet.com uses RCS to build trust with subscribers—increasing conversion rates by 50%

FragranceNet.com, an early adopter of RCS, has already enjoyed impressive results from their roll-out of RCS Business Messaging. 

They used RCS to bring personalized browsing to text and build trust with their subscribers. By using branded threads and prominent logo placement, they were able to make their text messages stand out in the inbox.

By personalizing the messaging app experience and including swipeable image carousels, FragranceNet.com saw a:

• 106% increase in CTR
• 50% increase in CVR
• 47% increase in revenue/send

The response from our audience has been incredibly encouraging. We’ve seen strong engagement and higher click-through rates that really show the power of RCS. It’s not just effective—it feels more trustworthy. With RCS, our brand shows up right in the messaging app so shoppers get a consistent, more engaging experience across all our channels. 

-  David Janecek, Director, Email & SMS at FragranceNet.com

The team at FragranceNet.com is excited about harnessing the full potential of RCS and how it'll create more engaging and personalized experiences for their shoppers. They’re just getting started with what they can do with RCS—and we’re excited to be a part of their journey. 

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Spanx uses RCS to unlock previously unengaged subscribers—increasing revenue per send by 201%+

As an early adopter of RCS Business Messaging, Spanx was eager to test new ways to innovate within their text program, especially when it came to re-engaging dormant subscribers, a top priority for the team.

With RCS, Spanx gained access to richer tools designed to drive deeper engagement. They leveraged many of the new media formats (from product carousels, to rich videos) to engage with their audience, resulting in a significant lift in performance. 

While their core, engaged subscribers saw record growth—the team saw an average 30%+ increase in revenue per send last month for their engaged subscribers segment—more critically, they were able to reignite performance with their historically hard-to-engage segment of unengaged subscribers. When compared head-to-head against their existing text program, RCS was able to drive the following with their previously unengaged segment:

• 236% increase in CTR
• 190% increase in CVR
• 201% increase in revenue/send

*Unengaged subscribers are defined as not having engaged with a message in the last 180 days, and never having made a purchase with Spanx

We’ve seen that RCS and the creative messaging formats it provides can be a great tool for re-engaging previously lapsed subscribers. We’re excited to continue to leverage these learnings, and evolve our prospecting efforts in parallel.

RCS & Attentive’s platform unlocks more ways for us to tell Spanx’s story through creative diversification. With a strong legacy of innovation, our products remain central to how we drive growth. Continuing to highlight them in our messaging helps us connect with customers in ways that directly support performance goals.

We’ve really enjoyed working closely with the Attentive team on unlocking new strategic opportunities for Spanx. They’ve been a key partner as we look to continue to grow our messaging program.

- Zoe Meeran, Vice President, Growth & Performance Marketing, Spanx.

The team at Spanx is constantly looking for new ways to continue to improve their text program performance and deepen their ability to engage with their entire audience—not just their most engaged subscribers. With the additional creative options that RCS & Attentive present, they see key opportunities to test different content types in a 1:1, personal way with their audience and share those learnings across other marketing channels, and improve audience engagement across the board.

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Moving into beta for RCS: What does this mean? 

What does this mean for Attentive customers who want to start using RCS Business Messaging?

Moving into beta means RCS is now available across the entire Attentive platform, and we’re continuing to work closely with our carrier partners to accelerate brand approvals.

Marketers can now create engaging RCS experiences in campaigns and triggered journeys where you already build SMS and MMS messages. RCS’s suggested replies will enable you to capture valuable zero-party data more easily through conversational experiences, giving you richer subscriber insights for better segmentation and personalization.

And, you’ll be able to maximize RCS performance from day one with a complete suite of AI tools, built to power tailored experiences through RCS Business Messaging, across the entire shopper journey.

You can be among the first brands to pilot the future of text marketing. Through our strong partnerships with Google and all major phone carriers, Attentive is leading the RCS Business Messaging rollout in the United States and continuing to speed up brand approvals. As of Q2 2025, 70%+ of approved RCS Business Messaging agents (the RCS replacement for business phone numbers) in the US market have been acquired by Attentive customers.

We’re working closely with these partners to actively define the features and capabilities that maximize RCS program performance. Brands working with Attentive have the first-mover advantage while other brands are still waiting for access—and they’ll continue to have priority in shaping and defining the future of RCS marketing.

You’ll partner with the leaders in text message marketing. Just as we pioneered SMS/MMS as a core performance marketing channel, we’re ensuring RCS is rolled out in a way that’s loved by shoppers, highly performant for marketers, and trustworthy for all users.

With the increase in text program complexity that comes with the additional form factors and creative freedom RCS Business Messaging offers, being able to work closely with a team of RCS experts will be critical for long-term program success.

With the Attentive team of RCS experts, you’ll have the support you need to create a best-in-class RCS program, backed by the same deliverability and compliance expertise that’s made us the leader in text marketing.

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What’s next for RCS Business Messaging?

We’re extending our high-performing AI personalization capabilities to RCS, building toward truly personalized, interactive shopping experiences via text.

We’re not just thinking about how to integrate RCS Business Messaging into our existing tools, we’re thinking about how this new message type meets our customers’ needs to increase engagement with their subscribers.

Beyond the AI Pro features you can use to optimize RCS campaigns today, we’re developing AI capabilities specifically designed for RCS’s unique features. While Google’s RCS infrastructure provides the technical foundation, Attentive is developing the personalization layer that dynamically adapts messages to each shopper’s preferences, behaviors, and purchase history—turning RCS into a high-converting shopping channel.

Our vision for the next stage of RCS power by Attentive AI™ will:

• Turn shopper data into immersive, personalized experiences using real-time insights and responses from interactive features like suggested replies to make product carousels and other rich formats feel curated and engaging.
• Enable seamless discovery and consideration by automatically surfacing the right product to the right shopper at the right moment.
• Power frictionless checkout experiences by guiding shoppers through a customized purchasing experience in web view, letting them buy without leaving the conversation.
• Build customers for life using behavioral data to trigger perfectly-timed, relevant post-purchase follow-ups.

When paired with AI, RCS is the foundation for the next generation of personalized commerce. Partner with the platform that’s leading this transformation to get an early competitive advantage.

‍Want to get started? Join our waitlist to get priority access to RCS Business Messaging.