ET Explainer: How will Apple's RCS support for SMSes improve user experience

Apple's announcement to enable RCS (rich communication services) messaging has sparked much excitement by upgrading the traditional SMS and opening up rich communication between Apple's iMessage and Google's inbox on Androids. But, marketers are speculating what model will Apple adopt to offer RCS messaging for businesses. Will it take the Google route of partnering with telcos or the WhatsApp route of offering direct APIs to businesses? Himanshi Lohchab explains the RCS opportunity in India and how Apple can add to the competition in the race for advanced messaging.

What has Apple announced?
At its Worldwide Developer Conference event in Cupertino, California, Apple said it will enable RCS messaging support to iMessage with its iOS 18 upgrade later this year. This means that Android users can now send messages to iPhone users over mobile data with features such as read receipts, high quality images, etc.


These features were previously restricted to only iPhone users who could communicate via IP messages displayed in a blue bubble. While this is being extended for Android, the green bubble will still remain.

What is RCS?
RCS is an interactive messaging protocol which enables features such as two-way communication, exchange of text/pictures/videos, group conversations, read receipts, lead generation and other advantages as compared to the traditional SMS.

It is a GSMA (Global System for Mobile Association) protocol which released in 2008 to transform SMS communication between telecom carriers and the mobile device. In its latest Universal Profile 2.4 update for RCS, GSMA says, "The Universal Profile contains core features such as capability discovery (interoperable between regions), chat, group chat, file transfer, audio messaging, video share, multi-device, enriched calling, location share and live sketching."

What could be its impact?
"While Apple's new demo video showed a peer-to-peer conversation, the company had previously committed support to Universal Profile 2.4 which means Apple could open up the channel for enterprise communication to their consumers," said Inderpal Mumick, chief executive at global RCS operator Dotgo, which was recently acquired by India's Gupshup. "This could be a significant development for the India market which is seeing exponential growth in Google RCS messaging."

Dotgo is an exclusive platform provider to Vodafone Idea's (Vi's) enterprise arm to enable rich business messaging (RBM) on Android phones. Currently, Vi is the only provider of RBM in India, while, according to sources, the other two telcos Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio are in discussions with Google to strike a partnership. Globally, RBM volumes have crossed 1 billion messages annually, Google chief executive Sundar Pichai said in a post last year.

While the volumes are currently small for India, it is the largest market for RCS, and has grown 30% since the start of this year, industry experts estimate. "It must be noted that although the share of Apple devices in India is less than 5%, these are premium users of majority digital services, doing multiple transactions and a prime target for most marketers," Mumick said, adding Apple RBM will surely command good volumes.

However, it's still not clear whether Apple will offer this via partnering with telcos or through direct APIs to businesses.