Friday, February 23, 2018

Should you invest in Google's new text message tech?

Some businesses are betting heavily on the future of text messaging.

Rich Communication Services (RCS) enables businesses to text customers more than just words, adding maps, graphics, package notification, read receipts and other features to their digital missives. The features are new to Android phones but have been available for some time on Apple devices through the iMessage feature.

Though 40 businesses are involved in the Android rollout, active participation by customers will be minor.

The Verge writes:

Google’s blog post notes specifically that it has “collaborated with Sprint” in the US, the services are coming to Mexico “soon,” and other regions and businesses are meant to follow after that.

So it’s a relatively small rollout, meaning only a small sliver of Android users will have the opportunity to negotiate a footlong from Subway in full RCS richness. For the rest, Google says, RCS for business will fall back to standard SMS.

The technology doesn’t apply only to text messaging; features enable messaging apps such as Twilio to offer a richer experience for both users and brands.

TechCrunch wrote:

“By making rich, interactive messaging features available to consumers in their default messaging app, RCS has the potential to be as ubiquitous as SMS is today,” Patrick Malatack, VP of Product and GM of Messaging at Twilio, told me. “Developers choose to build this messaging experience using Twilio because instead of wrestling with variations in APIs and tooling, they can integrate every messaging channel — including RCS — into their applications through one simple API. We can’t wait to see what our customers build.”

[RELATED: Learn how to boost buzz, build brand recognition and engage employees on the hottest social media platforms.]

Google has supported the changes for some time, but the communications world may be reaching a tipping point where RCS supplants SMS as the industry norm.

Engadget wrote:

[Google] made a big push to expand RCS support on Android last year, and carriers have been slowly adopting the standard and preloading Android Messages to the standard app load out. Now, Google says that it's convinced 43 carriers and device makers to add native support for the messaging protocol.

More announcements can be expected for the technology, as Twitter posts promise to demonstrate RCS’s capabilities.

Google contends that businesses have a lot to gain from using the technology.

In a blog post, it wrote:

With RCS, businesses can send more useful and interactive messages to their customers. This means, for example, that a retailer can send beautiful images of their products, rather than a text message, and even let the customer select and buy something, all without leaving the messaging app. Best of all, customers who have already opted in to SMS messages from a business get this upgraded experience automatically in Android Messages.

However, not everyone is ready to pop the champagne. Some say the technology isn’t nearly universal enough yet to be a game changer—but the future is bright.

The Verge concluded:

Anyway, there’s a big difference between being committed to support something and actually implementing that support in real products that real users can use. Right now, RCS is still a bundle of confusing technologies, terms, and incompatible services. But everybody has said their RCS messages will someday work with Google’s Jibe RCS server and with each other’s — totalling 1.8 billion customers, Google says.

So, while only a few of us will be able to track our contact lens orders via RCS messaging today, perhaps tomorrow all of us will be able to finally leave SMS in our rearview mirror.

How do you expect to use text messages to connect with customers, PR Daily readers? What new capabilities are you most excited about?

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