Quick answer. RCS messaging is sending and receiving messages over the Rich Communication Services protocol — the upgrade to SMS/MMS built into modern phones. For people, it means texting with images, reactions, read receipts, and typing indicators. For businesses (called RCS Business Messaging, or RBM), it means sending verified, branded messages with rich cards, carousels, and tap-to-act buttons directly into the customer’s default inbox, with automatic fallback to SMS where RCS isn’t supported.
There are two sides to RCS messaging. Person-to-person (P2P) RCS is the consumer chat experience in apps like Google Messages and Apple Messages. Application-to-person (A2P) RCS — RCS Business Messaging — is how brands reach customers: order updates, appointment reminders, promotions, OTPs, and two-way support, all carrying a verified business identity.
SimplyRCS is an RCS Business Messaging platform: it handles the verified sender, the rich content, the carrier approvals, and the SMS/MMS fallback so a business message lands richly where it can and reliably everywhere else.
Key facts
- P2P RCS chats can now be end-to-end encrypted (rolled out by default in beta with iOS 26.5 in May 2026). Business/A2P RCS is transport-secured but, like other business channels, is processed by the sending platform — it is not end-to-end encrypted.
- RCS business traffic reached roughly 50 billion messages globally in 2025, up from about 33 billion in 2024 (industry estimates).