RCS muscles into India’s messaging game: Agencies can’t sit this out

Once upon a digital time, SMS was king — simple, dependable, but about as exciting as dial-up internet. Enter RCS (Rich Communication Services), the tech world's answer to customers who expect fireworks, not faxes. Think of it as SMS on a protein shake: rich media, tappable buttons, and chat interfaces that actually feel alive.

But let us cut to the best part. No new app downloads. Just instant, interactive conversations straight from your native messaging app. For marketers and contact centers, RCS is a backstage pass to faster conversions, shorter sales cycles, and customers who might actually thank them for a well-placed text.

Now, with Apple reportedly in talks to bring RCS support to Indian mobile users, the momentum around RCS is heating up. If the Apple-Google partnership materialises, it could significantly widen the adoption of Apple’s blue-bubble messaging experience—currently exclusive to iPhone users—to Android devices as well.

In a market dominated by traditional SMS and with WhatsApp quickly claiming serious share, RCS could be the seismic shift Indian business communications didn’t anticipate. The implications are serious, and martech companies are already laying the groundwork to scale their infrastructure for a future where RCS may not just be an option—but a necessity.

Building for scale

For Anand Jain, co-founder and chief product officer of CleverTap, the shift is not a surprise but a validation. “Apple’s adoption of RCS is a game-changer for the entire business messaging ecosystem, marking a significant step toward universal, richer communication experiences. We’ve always believed in engaging users on channels they use the most. And with RCS becoming more mainstream, especially across high-volume markets like India, it opens up a powerful new touchpoint for brands to drive contextual, real-time conversations,” says Jain.

Anand Jain, co-founder and chief product officer of CleverTap.

CleverTap is sharpening its backend to support real-time analytics around delivery, read receipts, and user actions. “Our goal is to enable marketers to harness its full potential from creative execution to measurable business impact across markets of varying maturity," he adds.

Gupshup’s senior director for global marketing, Vartika Verma, echoes the sentiment, underscoring their pre-emptive preparation. “Apple’s adoption of RCS essentially unlocks a unified, rich messaging experience for nearly every smartphone user worldwide. Gupshup has been anticipating this shift and had already been scaling our infrastructure to meet the rising demand,” she explains.

In India’s vast and complex mobile ecosystem, Gupshup is working with carriers and OEMs to fine-tune delivery pipelines and messaging formats. "We’re also enhancing our AI-driven orchestration layer to intelligently route and personalise messages across RCS, WhatsApp, and other channels—making sure brands can reach their users where they’re most active, with consistency and impact," Vartika adds.

Milind Pathak, chief corporate marketing officer (CCMO) of Route Mobile, points to their auto-scalable cloud deployments on AWS across geographical locations. “This gives us the flexibility to handle the ever-growing capacity requirements,” says Pathak, highlighting the critical role cloud-native architecture will play.

From opens to outcomes

RCS boasts open rates and engagement times that make SMS and email look prehistoric. WebEngage’s reports show that 90% of rich media messages are opened within 15 minutes, with engagement times lasting up to 45 seconds. But marketers today need more than eye-popping engagement rates—they want ROI.

Pathak explains the advantage, “RCS messages appearing in the inbox gives the visibility of brand name, logo and the verification mark along with it. This gives an assurance to the users to open and respond to the messages as they feel it's a genuine message unlike a spam feel they may get in the similar scenario of SMS coming from a short code without any brand identity visible in it."

The rich media capabilities—images, videos, carousels, quick reply buttons—help drive meaningful actions, not just vanity metrics. “Unlike SMS or email where the interactiveness is minimal, this gives an edge to RCS to improve the user experience and the responsiveness,” he adds.

The results speak for themselves. Vartika shares, “BankBazaar saw a 130% increase in response rates with RCS, simply by replacing static messages with rich, interactive formats that encouraged two-way conversations.”

Similarly, EaseMyTrip recorded a 4x higher click-through rate compared to email, directly driving up bookings and revenue. A top online grocery retailer achieved a stunning 99.8% delivery rate and a 10% response rate during a Summer Sale blitz through RCS—outperforming SMS and email by a large margin.

Vartika Verma, senior director for global marketing, Gupshup.

“In short, RCS does both—engage and convert,” Vartika asserts. “For brands that value real-time, high-intent interactions, the business case is becoming increasingly undeniable."

Keeping personalisation personal, not spammy

The proliferation of AI into messaging workflows brings a new challenge: how to ensure personalisation doesn’t descend into soulless, algorithmic spam?

Jain believes it starts with consent and context. “AI is a powerful enabler of personalisation, but without the right checks and balances, it can easily lead to over-automation, resulting in experiences that feel intrusive," he warns.

CleverTap, therefore, uses AI to optimise user journeys through dynamic experimentation, not to carpet-bomb customers with irrelevant messaging. “Our AI-powered experimentation tool, IntelliNode, dynamically optimises user journeys and maximises the ROI of every campaign,” Jain explains.

Gupshup takes a similarly measured approach. “Just adding a customer's name in a broadcast messaging campaign, without it being meaningful for the customer doesn’t really qualify as personalisation,” says Vartika. She highlights Gupshup Personalize, their conversational intelligence tool that ensures interactions remain human-like and contextually relevant.

Pathak adds that Route Mobile uses guardrails built into their AI integrations. "Guardrails are available in the system to enable the responses within the boundaries of data sources configured, sentiment analysis and contextual responses to ensure the human-like responses are not going beyond the customer-centric approach of brands."

Gaurang Darji, director, Brand Aid.

With global data privacy regulations like GDPR and India’s DPDP Act setting strict mandates, how are companies balancing compliance with personalisation at scale? “We approach personalisation through the lens of 'privacy-first' logic," says Gaurang Darji, director at digital marketing agency Brand Aid. "Consent isn’t an afterthought, it’s a mandate of the user journey."

Similarly, both CleverTap and Gupshup build GDPR and DPDP Act compliance into their product architecture, ensuring that user preferences and consent mechanisms are fully respected.

Rethinking creativity for RCS

While the tech is ready, is the creative industry truly embracing the new storytelling canvas that RCS offers?

Ajay Verma, managing partner at conversion specialist company, 0101.Today, is blunt, “The POV needs to change for all one-to-one mediums, namely emails, WhatsApp, SMS, RCS etc. In our experience across clients, it’s been given a step motherly treatment.”

Verma believes the lag stems from how creative agencies are briefed and remunerated. “Most creative agencies don’t have the incentive to learn and innovate new age and high performing mediums like these. We believe the creative shift will only happen when we start measuring RCS not just by open rates but by conversion metrics like engagement, add-to-carts, and completed transactions," he states.

Darji takes a slightly more optimistic view. “Honestly, we’re at a tipping point," he says. "While many still treat RCS as SMS 2.0, there’s a clear shift happening among forward-looking brands and agencies."

At Brand Aid, RCS campaigns are seen as “mini-experience zones” where storytelling, interactivity, and functionality converge. “We’re actively rethinking how campaigns can live and breathe within an RCS flow," says Darji, giving examples like interactive carousels and embedded video walkthroughs.

Adoption hurdles: From test-and-watch to strategic foundation?

Despite the promise, full-scale adoption remains cautious. “We’re absolutely pitching for RCS to be a part of the omnichannel mix,” says Darji. “But realistically, most clients are still in a ‘test-and-watch’ mode rather than going all-in.”

Milind Pathak, chief corporate marketing officer of Route Mobile.

The main barriers? A knowledge gap around RCS's positioning between SMS, WhatsApp, and push notifications—and, crucially, inconsistent telco support. Ajay Verma adds, “Some clients remain in the 'wait-and-watch' mode due to limited reach and inconsistent telco support, iPhone access, data recording and plough back, which stalls full-scale integration into their omnichannel playbook."

Still, early adopters are making RCS a key conversion channel, particularly for mid-funnel nudges and abandoned cart recovery.

RCS may well be on the cusp of a breakthrough moment in India. If Apple’s integration becomes reality, it will no longer be an experiment—it will be a staple. Martech platforms are racing ahead, creative agencies are slowly catching up, and brands are waking up to the real, measurable impact that richer, more interactive messaging can drive.

It’s not just about better conversations anymore. It’s about redefining how brands connect, convert, and cultivate relationships in the messaging era.