The first SMS message was sent over 30 years ago.

Today, we use texting everyday, from talking to loved ones, keeping in touch with friends, and of course for our marketing, sales, and customer support communication.

Powering all these texts are two messaging technologies: SMS and RCS. 

But what are the main differences between these two? And what’s the best texting technology to use in your business?

Below we'll dive into what SMS and RCS are, how they differ, and when you should use these messaging technologies throughout your texting campaigns.

RCS Messaging and SMS Explained: Two Messaging Giants

Let's take a detailed look at RCS and SMS messaging, so you can understand these two messaging technologies and which makes the most sense for your business. 

What is SMS?

SMS stands for Short Message Service.

This is the standard text message that you know and use every day. It’s also the standard technology for sending and receiving text messages. 

There are many different types of texts, but SMS refers to the 160-character messages sent via a cellular network. This is very similar to a MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), which is just a SMS that includes media like images, videos, GIFs, attachments and video cards.

SMS messages are compatible with nearly every smartphone and all mobile phones out there today. This makes their adoption and use more widespread.

Compared to other forms of messaging, like iMessage and RCS, a SMS message can only be sent via a cellular network. SMS isn’t sent using wi-fi or cellular data.

SMS is definitely the original mobile messaging. Even after 30+ years, it’s the easiest way to open a direct line of communication to your leads and customers for simple two-way messaging.

Not only that, but you can create effective SMS automations that send out automatic text messages to continuously move leads through your sales and marketing pipelines. 

Simple. Versatile. Easy. That’s the backbone of SMS messages.

What is RCS?

RCS stands for Rich Communication Service. This messaging protocol aims to offer next-generation messaging to match the power of modern mobile devices.

When you think about it, SMS has remained relatively the same since the 90s, so this newer messaging format seeks to provide more advanced functionality.

Overall, it lets you send longer messages with enhanced multimedia content. For example, with RCS, messages include read receipts, reactions, group chats, branded messages, and more. 

You can include interactive elements like buttons, suggested actions, and even forms that allow users to engage with content directly within the message itself instead of having to click a link. 

Finally, RCS messages don’t have a character limit, so you can send much longer messages to your users. You’ll need a data (5G, LTE) or wi-fi connection for RCS messages to be sent. 

Beyond internet connectivity, device compatibility is one of the main things holding back RCS messaging. Currently, Android devices are equipped to handle RCS messages natively.

Unfortunately, for iphone users: You have to use iOS 18 to enable RCS messaging. RCS has similar messaging functionality to iMessage, which is why it’s not a native feature of the iPhone OS. 

Although it provides interactive messaging, RCS hasn’t quite reached the business-to-customer world yet. Below you’ll find a quick overview of how RCS and SMS stack up against each other:

Why Businesses Still Rely on SMS

Even though RCS is the latest form of messaging, we still recommend businesses rely on SMS at Salesmsg. Below, you’ll learn the two main reasons why. 

Universality is Key

SMS is the most widely used and trusted form of texting. Due to its longevity and widespread availability, it’s the most common type of messaging around the world.

All mobile devices and cell providers support SMS messages. That means you can send your leads and customers SMS, no matter which cellular network they’re using.

Even across other messaging types, SMS is used as a failsafe. So, if an RCS or iMessage fails to send, messages are sent via SMS. That’s because it’s so reliable.

Plus, SMS is just easier to use.

From your customers’ perspective: They only need to turn on their mobile phones to use SMS. That means your customers can instantly text back and forth with your business. No need to download additional apps or adjust their phone settings. 

Your leads and customers are also familiar with SMS messages. Most of us have spent thousands of hours sending and receiving SMS messages. It’s something we’re all extremely comfortable with. 

All of this together is the reason why SMS gets better deliverability, reply and click rates. That's why Salesmsg has used SMS to send over 300 million texts for our clients over the years.

Check out the video below for more details on how to send SMS with Salesmsg.

SMS = Much more affordable

Think about when you’re sending appointment reminder messages or other time-sensitive alerts. You need to ensure your SMS message actually gets delivered and read, so SMS is the better option to use.

The same goes for SMS broadcasts and other campaigns. Using SMS means it will be delivered to your list and be much more cost-effective than an RCS campaign. 

With RCS, you’d spend a small fortune trying to run an RCS campaign on your entire texting list. 

RCS is a carrier-enabled service, and not every carrier supports it yet. To make RCS work, you also need a newer smartphone that supports the technology, which limits the reach and adoption. 

Although RCS has an in-depth set of features, these features come at a much higher cost and also complexity to set up. So, you have the total messaging cost plus the time cost of creating these media-rich messages. 

Compare this to SMS, which is very cost-effective. Whether you’re on a budget or looking to scale your messaging, SMS is the more affordable option for businesses—especially for teams looking to scale with SMS.

RCS vs. SMS for Business: What’s the Difference?

Below we’ll take a look at the overall use cases for sending RCS or SMS messages:

What Does the Future Hold?

Our vote: SMS is still the best for all business texting. However, RCS text messages hold interesting possibilities for the future. 

RCS’s Potential Growth

Why does RCS have potential?

RCS offers an immersive messaging experience that’s more like using a messaging app like WhatsApp, iMessage, or Facebook Messenger. It also works across the native messaging app Google Messages. 

Overall, there’s quite a lot of Android users, with over 70% of the mobile market, meaning RCS capability is there. Plus, you can expect RCS to become more mainstream with RCS support from Apple. 

Finally, out of the total 5.77 billion business messaging users, 26% of that is RCS and this style of messaging has reached nearly 60% of smartphone users.

That means RCS still doesn’t have the market penetration of SMS, but it’s on its way. 

SMS: It’s Already Winning

Even with RCS’s potential, SMS is winning in the business world.

SMS is more reliable, affordable, high-performing, and easy to integrate into your existing sales, marketing, and support workflows than RCS.

Also, many users like RCS because of its interactive features like images, videos and buttons. However, you can use SMS to send MMS messages with images, videos, GIFs and attachments. It’s not the same visual experience as RCS, but these elements can still draw attention to your messages in a similar way.

With Salesmsg, you can easily add any images, videos, GIFs, or other attachments to text messages. Inside our texting-and-calling platform, you can save all these files to attach to your texts inside your own Media Library as you can see below.

For the foreseeable future, we believe SMS will continue to be the best option for businesses sending text messages for their marketing, sales and support teams.

However, technology is always changing. As RCS becomes more widely adopted, there may come a day when you’ll want to supplement your SMS campaigns with RCS messaging. 

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Frequently Asked Questions

Do all devices support RCS?

RCS support depends on the device type, carrier, and region. Android phones natively support RCS. However, iPhones and Apple devices need to be running iOS 18, and RCS messaging needs to be enabled. Currently, it has a much smaller adoption than standard SMS messaging. 

Is RCS replacing SMS?

RCS does offer enhanced messaging features. However, it’s not a direct replacement for SMS. The adoption levels for RCS are currently relatively small. However, you can think of RCS as an additional tool to use alongside SMS. For example, RCS business messaging can be used for smaller media-rich marketing or support campaigns, while SMS can power your bulk messaging. 

Which is better for businesses: RCS or SMS?

For most businesses, SMS is going to power most of your support, sales, and marketing messaging. SMS works best for messages that are time-sensitive, require high deliverability, or are sent at scale. On the other hand, RCS can be used for smaller-scale interactive promotions. Both SMS and RCS can be used together to power your business messaging.

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RCS vs. SMS - The Final Verdict

Choosing the right type of messaging is crucial for your business.

Looking at SMS vs. RCS shows us that SMS still reigns supreme as the top style of messaging for all types of businesses. SMS is compatible with all mobile phones, has high deliverability, is reliable, and is cost-effective.

RCS promises an engaging messaging experience, rich media, and high in-message interactivity. However, this comes at a cost of lower adoption. It requires newer devices and device setup and will be much more expensive to run campaigns.

If you’re looking to send texts for your business, we suggest starting with SMS. With Salesmsg, you can use our texting platform to send SMS broadcasts, text back and forth with your contacts, and add automated SMS messages to your campaigns.

Want to see how Salesmsg works? Let our team of in-house experts show you in a live demo. Or just sign up for a free trial and check out Salesmsg for yourself.