The State of RCS, 2026.

An adoption, market, and engagement report on Rich Communication Services

Published June 2026 · Updated September 2026

Executive summary

Rich Communication Services (RCS) crossed from promising standard to mainstream channel between 2024 and 2026. Apple's adoption of RCS on iPhone (iOS 18.1, late 2024) made the standard near-universal across modern smartphones, triggering a sharp surge in traffic and accelerating business adoption. By the end of 2026, RCS is projected to reach billions of users, business messaging volume has scaled into the tens of billions of messages annually, and the market is valued in the high single-digit billions of dollars and growing at double-digit rates. Fresh mid-2026 provider data shows the acceleration concentrating in the US, where RCS interactions grew 1,298.8% year over year in the first half of 2026 (Infobip, July 2026).

This report compiles the most credible published figures on RCS users and reach, the Apple inflection, business-messaging traffic and revenue, market size and growth, the geographic landscape, engagement performance, and the standards/ecosystem picture, each attributed and dated.

Key findings

• Users: Juniper Research counted about 1.1 billion active RCS users in 2024 (Juniper, September 2023). Its February 2022 forecast, made before Apple's timing was known, put RCS subscribers at 3.8 billion by 2026, about 40% of global mobile subscribers; no newer public user forecast has replaced it.
• US scale: Google reported more than 1 billion RCS messages sent per day in the US as of May 2025 (Google, May 2025); RCS can reach over 80% of US smartphones, a SimplyRCS derivation from StatCounter and Apple figures set out in section 1.
• 2026 US surge: US RCS interactions grew 1,298.8% year over year in the first half of 2026 (Infobip, July 2026). One provider, Infobip, delivered more than 1.5 billion US RCS messages in 2026 to date. Global RCS-for-Business traffic rose 169.3% year over year over the same period.
• The Apple effect: Apple's 2024 RCS support is widely credited as the adoption inflection point. Juniper forecast it would lift operator revenue from RCS business messaging from $1.3 billion in 2023 to $8 billion in 2025 (Juniper, January 2024), and Infobip measured business RCS traffic on its platform growing 5x in 2024, with the largest spike after Apple's launch (Infobip, vendor-reported).
• Business traffic: Juniper put RCS business-messaging volume at roughly 33 billion messages in 2024 and forecast 50 billion for 2025 (Juniper, November 2024).
• Market: sizing reports differ by scope. Business Research Insights puts the global RCS market at $9.5 billion in 2026, rising to $36.1 billion by 2035 (16% CAGR, September 2026); Market Research Future at $4.5 billion in 2025 to $39.1 billion by 2035 (24.1% CAGR, August 2026); Future Market Insights at $3.0 billion in 2025 to $13.1 billion by 2035 (16% CAGR, August 2025).
• Operator revenue: Juniper projects RCS-for-Business mobile-operator revenue rising from about $2 billion in 2026 to $6.5 billion by 2030 (Juniper, February 2026).
• Brand adoption: over the first half of 2026 one provider processed RCS registration requests for more than 7,300 unique brands and completed roughly 14,000 RCS agent launches (Infobip, July 2026, vendor-reported), a measure of how many businesses are starting on RCS rather than how much existing senders send.
• Engagement: RCS click-through commonly runs 15-30%, well above typical SMS, with high read rates, supported by numerous vendor-reported brand case studies.

1. Users & reach

Adoption figures vary by source and by what is counted (active users vs monthly active users vs RCS-capable devices), so they should always be attributed. The direction is consistent across sources: steep growth, accelerated by Apple's 2024 support.

Takeaway: even where iPhone support is still expanding internationally, Android's roughly two-thirds global share means the reachable RCS audience is already very large.

The US reach figure is a SimplyRCS derivation, not a published statistic: StatCounter puts Android at 39% and iOS at 61% of US mobile OS use (August 2026), and Apple measured 79% of all active iPhones on iOS 26 in June 2026. Every iPhone on iOS 18 or later supports RCS, so about 39% + 0.79 × 61%, roughly 87% of US smartphones, can receive it where the carrier supports it. Industry reporting of 70-85% is consistent with that; carrier coverage is tracked in the RCS support tracker.

For the US picture behind the reach figure, which carriers support RCS covers the four networks and the RCS support tracker is updated quarterly; which countries support RCS covers business RCS availability outside the US.

2. The Apple inflection

Apple's entry is the single most important event in RCS adoption. Before it, RCS was effectively Android-only in practice; after it, the standard spans virtually all modern smartphones in markets like the US. What the change means for a sender is covered in does Apple support RCS, and the encryption row below in is RCS encrypted.

3. Business messaging: traffic & revenue

RCS Business Messaging (RBM) is where the commercial value concentrates. Both traffic and operator revenue are growing rapidly. A business sends on this channel through a verified agent, explained in what is an RBM agent and how to send RCS messages.

The 2026 US inflection (provider data)

Provider data from mid-2026 shows how fast US adoption is compounding. These figures are vendor-reported by Infobip and dated.

• US RCS interactions grew 1,298.8% year over year in the first half of 2026 (Infobip, July 2026).
• Infobip delivered more than 1.5 billion RCS messages in the US in 2026 to date (Infobip, July 2026, vendor-reported).
• Global RCS-for-Business traffic rose 169.3% year over year over the same period (Infobip, July 2026).
• Other fast-growing markets by RCS traffic growth: Spain +290%, the United Kingdom +282%, India +108%, and France +48% (Infobip, July 2026).
• Brand adoption, not just volume: over the same period one provider processed RCS registration requests for more than 7,300 unique brands and completed roughly 14,000 RCS agent launches (Infobip, July 2026, vendor-reported). Traffic growth shows existing senders sending more; agent launches show how many businesses are arriving for the first time.

4. Market size & growth

Market-sizing reports differ widely on scope (consumer plus business, business only, operator revenue vs total spend), so the honest presentation is a range with sources, not a single figure. The consistent finding is double-digit annual growth.

Because of the wide variance, cite a specific number only with its source and date, and prefer the range when summarizing.

Market size says nothing about what one business pays per message. That is a separate question, answered in how much RCS costs and, provider by provider, in RCS pricing by provider.

US adoption at a glance

Last updated September 2026. This is the US-only summary; every figure is sourced below and repeated with its context in the sections that follow. Cite this section directly rather than the whole report if you only need the US numbers.

Three things to read from this. Growth is concentrating in the US rather than spreading evenly, which is what a four-figure percentage against a mature SMS market means. Brand adoption is running alongside traffic growth, so the increase is new businesses arriving rather than existing senders sending more. And the encryption milestone removes the last significant objection for regulated senders evaluating the channel.

Note the provider figures describe one provider's traffic, not the whole US market. They are useful as a direction and a rate of change, not as a market total.

5. Geographic landscape

• Consumer RCS: available via Google Messages in most countries, near-worldwide reach for person-to-person RCS.
• Business RCS: a growing subset of countries, carrier- and provider-dependent (which countries support RCS). As a 2026 reference point, AWS End User Messaging RCS for Business reached 22 countries on 29 May 2026, the US, Canada, and 20 others across Europe and Latin America plus Singapore (AWS).
• Strong markets: the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Brazil, Mexico, and India.
• Leaders in business adoption: India and the wider Asia-Pacific region report the highest rates of consumers interacting with brands via RCS; MEF's consumer survey found 27% of smartphone users in India receive RCS messages from brands, more than double South Africa's 13%, the next highest (MEF).

6. Engagement performance

RCS consistently outperforms SMS on engagement, with click-through commonly cited at 15-30% and high read rates. Brand results below are vendor- or provider-reported case studies, strong directional evidence, but not independently audited, and labeled as such.

For what these results look like by sector, see what industries benefit from RCS and the RCS use cases. To model a programme of your own rather than read someone else's, the ROI of RCS sets out the method and the RCS ROI calculator runs the numbers.

Text message marketing statistics, 2026

The figures marketers ask for most often, with the same sourcing discipline as the rest of this report: attributed, dated, and labelled vendor-reported where they are.

Two cautions when quoting these. An SMS open rate and an RCS read rate are not the same measurement: SMS has no read receipt, so its "open rate" is an inference, while RCS reports reads directly and only where the recipient allows receipts. Compare channels at the click and conversion layer, where both are measured the same way. And every brand result above is a vendor case study, not an audit; use them as direction, not as a forecast. What is the ROI of RCS turns the engagement figures into cost per outcome.

7. Standards & ecosystem

• Standard: RCS is a GSMA Universal Profile standard. UP 3.0 (March 2025) added end-to-end encryption via MLS; UP 4.0 (2026) adds video calls started from a conversation, rich-text formatting, and streaming video in rich cards, with device/carrier rollout pending.
• Backend: Google's Jibe platform powers RCS for most carriers, and Google Messages is the primary Android client.
• US consolidation: carriers have standardized Android RCS on Google Messages, Verizon ended Samsung Messages RCS (Jan 2025), AT&T retires Advanced Messaging RCS (July 2026), and Samsung discontinues its Messages app (July 2026).
• Encryption nuance: personal RCS is end-to-end encrypted; business RCS is encrypted in transit but platform-processed, an important distinction for compliance content (is RCS secure).

8. Outlook

The trajectory points to RCS becoming the default for business messaging in supported markets, with SMS as universal fallback. Expected developments: wider end-to-end encryption, rollout of Universal Profile 4.0 features (video, rich text), deeper convergence with AI agents and conversational commerce, and continued double-digit market growth. RCS in 2030 and the future of business messaging take the outlook further. These are forward-looking projections grounded in current trajectory; rollout timing depends on carriers and device makers.

For the same figures maintained continuously rather than in an annual report, see the global RCS adoption statistics and the RCS carrier support tracker. If you are arriving at the channel for the first time, start with what RCS is and the benefits of RCS.

How to cite this report

Cite as: SimplyRCS, The State of RCS, 2026 (published June 2026, updated September 2026), https://simplyrcs.ai/learn/state-of-rcs-2026/. Section headings are stable anchors, so a specific table can be cited directly: for example #key-findings for the headline figures or #us-adoption-at-a-glance for the US-only summary. Each figure carries its originating source and date; when quoting one, carry the source with it.

Methodology & sources

This report synthesizes published third-party data. It does not present first-party SimplyRCS data; figures are attributed to their originating sources and dated. Where sources conflict, ranges are shown. Vendor-reported brand results are labeled as such and are not independently audited.

Primary sources referenced

• Juniper Research, active users ~1.1B in 2024 (September 2023); subscribers ~3.8B by 2026 (February 2022 forecast); business traffic ~33B 2024, ~50B 2025 (November 2024); operator revenue ~$2B 2026 → $6.5B 2030 (February 2026); Apple effect on operator revenue (January 2024).
• Google, >1 billion US RCS messages/day (May 2025); Jibe platform; Google Messages.
• Apple, RCS on iPhone since iOS 18.1 (2024); iOS 26.5 default cross-platform E2EE (May 2026).
• Infobip (Business Wire, July 28 2026), global RCS-for-Business traffic +169.3%, US interactions +1,298.8% year over year, 1.5B+ US messages in 2026 to date (vendor-reported).
• GSMA, Universal Profile 3.0 (E2EE/MLS, March 2025) and 4.0 (2026).
• StatCounter, Android ~68% of worldwide mobile OS usage (August 2026). StatCounter US OS share (August 2026) and Apple iOS adoption (June 2026), from which the US reach figure is derived in section 1. Infobip, business RCS traffic 5x in 2024 (vendor-reported).
• MEF (Mobile Ecosystem Forum), consumer survey: 27% of Indian smartphone users receive brand RCS, South Africa 13%.
• AWS, End User Messaging RCS for Business reached 22 countries (29 May 2026).
• Market reports: Business Research Insights (September 2026), Market Research Future (August 2026), Future Market Insights (August 2025).
• Vendor and platform case studies, each linked in section 6 and vendor-reported: Mobivity (Subway), imimobile/Webex (Pizza Hut Delivery, oneSource), Infobip (Club Comex, BankBazaar, EaseMyTrip), Google RCS for Business with Sinch (Nespresso), Sinch (Clarins, Picard), Listrak with Infobip (Dooney & Bourke), Vibes (automotive, stated without a cited source), Master of Code.