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IntegrationsRCS Is Live and Outperforming SMS: Our Takeaways from Google and Vibes
The 16-year overnight success
A name, not a number
The numbers back it up
What this means for you
Last week, VVPUSA was invited to New York City for a working session with Google and Vibes on RCS (Rich Communication Services). If SMS is the basic text message and MMS added the ability to send a photo, RCS goes far beyond both, turning a simple text thread into an interactive, app-like experience. We left convinced that RCS is no longer something coming soon. It’s here, and it’s already performing.
The 16-year overnight success
The GSM Association (GSMA), the global trade group for mobile carriers, wrote the RCS standard back in 2008, and then it waited. What changed is reach. Apple added RCS to iPhones with iOS 18 in 2024. In 2025, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon began carrying RCS business messages. The final piece arrived this year: at Google Marketing Live in May 2026, Google launched Message Ads with RCS for Business. A shopper can now go from a Google search or ad straight into a verified text conversation with a brand. Vibes stressed that this isn’t a pilot. It’s a live Google ad product.
A name, not a number
Think about your own text inbox: unknown numbers, short codes and “act now” offers. With RCS, a business shows up with its name, its logo and a verified badge before the message is even opened. Vibes made the point that a spammer can’t copy that badge. The message can be the same, but it lands very differently: “Who is this?” becomes “Oh, it’s my doctor’s office.”
Inside the conversation, RCS works more like an app than a text. It supports image carousels, tap-to-pay buttons, maps, order tracking and full web views, all inside the phone’s built-in messaging app with nothing to download.
The numbers back it up
Vibes shared an A/B test from a large retailer on its platform: more than 50 million messages over one month. The offers, audiences and send days were the same; only the channel changed. Compared with SMS, RCS delivered:
- 40% higher click-through
- 1.2x the purchase rate
- 1.6x the revenue per message, and RCS came out ahead on every offer tested
What this means for you
VVPUSA is already exploring how verified RCS messaging and Google Message Ads can help our clients connect with their customers in better ways. With RCS, brands can share far more than plain text. Carousels, images, videos and payments all live right inside the conversation, so customers can browse, act and buy without being sent off to a separate link
We’re grateful to Google and Vibes for including us. If you want to talk about what RCS could do for your business, reach out here!
