Athene Pharo, Product and Technical Services Manager at Kero. (Image: AI-enhanced)
Rich communication services (RCS) is emerging as one of the biggest shifts in business messaging, bringing rich media, interactive experiences and verified brand identities into the mobile inbox. The numbers also reaffirm that RCS for Business is a messaging channel that brands can’t afford to ignore, with global RCS users forecast to exceed 3.6 billion by 2028 and RCS traffic projected to grow from 45.3 billion messages in 2025 to 1.14 trillion by 2030.(1)
At the same time, few brands feel confident they understand where and when RCS, along with SMS and WhatsApp channels, fits into their messaging strategy. Many are grappling with the technology, carrier, regulatory, pricing and security complexities, often across geographically diverse operating environments.
So where does RCS for Business fit alongside SMS and WhatsApp Business? Which markets are ready? What are the current limitations? What are customer preferences? And most importantly, what should brands be doing now to prepare for a rapidly evolving and shifting business messaging landscape?
Kero, a specialist messaging provider that helps businesses reach customers across WhatsApp, RCS and SMS from one simple platform, and part of the Celerity Group, has released a white paper: Making Sense of RCS for Business to help brands build a messaging strategy that works with today’s operational and regulatory realities, while preparing for what comes next. With operations and capabilities spanning the United States, United Kingdom and South Africa, the white paper draws on Kero's experience operating across multiple markets and geographies to give brands a practical, grounded view of where RCS for Business stands today in a holistic business messaging strategy.
Navigating SMS, WhatsApp Business and RCS for Business.
For businesses weighing up their next move in messaging, the white paper offers a clear view grounded in real market data that underpins the current operational realities, and what businesses need to plan for. It covers:
- What RCS for Business is, and how it differs from SMS and WhatsApp Business, including where each channel is best suited in a hybrid business messaging mix.
- Why RCS coverage still varies so widely by market, from over 80% in markets like France and Germany to around 22% in South Africa, and what is behind that gap.
- The backstory behind RCS for Business, including Google's role in building the infrastructure, Apple's eight-year holdout, and the lessons learned from RCS's early roll-out in India
- The real constraints and opportunities brands need to plan around, including how the economics differ between RCS for Business, WhatsApp Business and SMS, why selecting the right channel depends on the job and purpose of the communication and understanding local market, carrier and operating realities.
“RCS for Business is one of the most significant shifts in messaging in years, but it is also one of the most misunderstood,” explains Athene Pharo, Product and Technical Services Manager at Kero. “This paper isn’t about declaring one channel the winner. It’s about helping brands understand what SMS, WhatsApp and RCS each do well, so they can build a strategy that gets the right message to the right customer on the right channel, wherever that customer happens to be.
“In an environment of evolving market conditions, regulatory developments, AI and emerging technologies, this white paper unpacks why it’s crucial to understand the business messaging use cases, and how, when and why these channels stack up in terms of today’s ROI, while building future-ready, secure communications platforms for forward-thinking brands,” concludes Pharo.
Making sense of RCS for Business is available to download at: https://kero.chat/whitepaper.