Quick answer. For most businesses, RCS can replace the everyday functions of a loyalty app — enrolling members, showing points balances, sending personalized offers, and letting customers redeem rewards — without asking anyone to download anything. A dedicated app can still do more (a full storefront, offline features, deep gamification), but the majority of customers never install or keep a brand’s app. RCS delivers the core loyalty loop in the native inbox to everyone, which is why it often outperforms an app on reach and active participation.
The honest framing is “replace for most, complement for some.” Apps remain valuable for a brand’s most engaged customers and for experiences that genuinely need an app. But because app abandonment is severe and most people won’t install yet another app, a loyalty program that lives only in an app reaches a fraction of the base. RCS reaches the whole list where they already are.
SimplyRCS’s view: run the loyalty program over RCS so every member can participate from their inbox, and reserve a native app (if you have one) for the power users who want it.
Key facts
- About 71% of users abandon an app within 90 days of downloading, and many never get past first use (industry app statistics, 2026).
- US consumers belong to roughly 16–19 loyalty programs but actively use only about half (Bond, Gartner, Statista, 2024–2025).
- 69% of consumers say they’re more likely to use a loyalty program if it has a mobile app — so apps help engaged users, but reach is still capped by who installs them.