Last week Commio exhibited in Orlando at yet another Enterprise Connect show. The show itself was lively with record-breaking attendance; thinQers met with more than 500 companies during our three days in attendance. As amazing as that turnout was, though, there was a point of Enterprise Connect that made the show even more exciting: rich communications services (RCS) messaging.
What Is RCS Messaging?
RCS messaging was easily the talk of Enterprise Connect, and with good reason. Essentially, RCS messaging is forming a whole new standard for text messaging, which hasn’t changed much over the last three decades. It incorporates the best of several current messaging platforms—WhatsApp, iMessage, Facebook Messenger and more—into a new messaging system that works with current platforms.
It actually works well with what thinQ is already doing; currently, we have hundreds of partners who are text-enabling apps, and together with our platform and application programming interfaces (APIs), we’re turning both local (SMS / MMS) and toll-free (purely SMS) numbers into text-enabled systems.
Impact of RCS Messaging on Businesses
While RCS messaging dovetails well into things that thinQ is already doing, there are many more reasons to be excited.
Much, much more content. RCS messaging will open up the opportunity for text messages to more widely incorporate visual content, from static images to moving GIFs to full video. That has staggering implications for marketing operations; sending video as easily as a text message can mean ultra-targeted video advertising, and that’s just for starters.
A slate of new features. Ever wonder if your text messages are being read, or just ignored? Or if they’re reaching their target at all? Delivery and read receipts will be part of the RCS messaging future.
Using the familiar. Since RCS messaging will draw on so many different platforms, it will help pull users back to the text messaging fold. While some may have left for new features or users-in-common on other platforms, RCS messaging will offer those features and more, encouraging users to return.
How to Take Advantage of RCS Messaging’s Potential
There’s no doubt that RCS messaging will have a lot of impact, and it helped make this year’s Enterprise Connect one for the record books. While it’s still more of a future development, it’s a good time to lay the groundwork to take advantage of it.
Laying that groundwork can be as simple as reaching out to us at Commio. We’re already working on this front, advancing SMS messaging forward to work around the loss of short codes, and when the future brings RCS messaging with it, just get in touch with us to make it part of your operations as well.
