Cape Town, 04 Oct 2017
After months of secrecy, CM's plans for the future of SMS have been showcased at Mobile World Congress America's in San Francisco, where CM showcased a pilot project in partnership with Booking.com, using RCS Messaging for hotel reservation confirmations. The messaging standard RCS (Rich Communication Service) is commonly described as SMS 2.0, and will compete with traditional OTT messaging apps. RCS provides for a far richer experience, than the plaintext SMS we are all familiar with, and all the great features of popular messaging apps, with the core difference that it uses carrier networks instead of the Internet.
Richer native messaging
RCS (Rich Communication Service) upgrades messaging with popular chat features like typing indicators, read receipts, high-quality photo sharing, messaging over WiFi and more. Google has already partnered with carriers and OEMs globally to upgrade the native messaging experience in Android with RCS, and plans to have this available before the end of year. So what does this mean?
RCS business messaging
With RCS business messaging, businesses can move beyond pure text messages to create branded, interactive messaging experiences. This means traditional messaging will be upgraded with popular chat features like typing indicators, read receipts, high-quality photo sharing and more.
RCS will upgrade today's business messaging experience by enabling brands to send more useful and interactive messages. For example, messages from airlines reminding people to check in for a flight can now take advantage of rich media and interactivity to provide a full check-in experience, complete with boarding pass, visual flight updates, and terminal maps on demand, all directly within the messaging experience.
With RCS, you are no longer limited to the plain text format of SMS. With RCS, you will get all the benefits of SMS with the features of modern chat apps.
"Joining Google's Early Access Programme for RCS business messaging was a unique opportunity for CM", says Daan G"onning, product owner for customer service and chat application GIN, also part of CM. "Not only does it prove that CM is at the forefront of the messaging industry, it's also an opportunity to tighten the relationship with Google in terms of messaging innovations. The main goal is to continue to improve messaging channels and offer our customers the best experience possible and offer more and better ways to keep in touch with their clients."
Booking.com Partners with CM to use RCS
CM has developed their first RCS use case in close collaboration with Booking.com. When a customer books a hotel, they receive an SMS message which links to the Booking.com mobile app. This confirmation is no longer just a text message, thanks to RCS.
In the confirmation message, a custom image of the booked resort and the booking details will be shown. The whole message is branded with Booking.com logo and action buttons are provided. With this richer messaging experience, Booking.com will increase their number of mobile app installs. Check out the differences between the old SMS and the new RCS experience.
If you would like to #Bepartofit, and improve your customer experience with RCS, register for CM's Early Access Programme.
Share