As our 2025 Sinch report on The state of customer communications reveals, the majority of consumers expect not only a very secure, but also a highly personalized user experience from their financial institutions.

At the same time, financial business leaders told us that meeting customers’ needs for personalization while ensuring safe and compliant communications are exactly the two biggest challenges for their industry right now.

This sure sounds like a conundrum, but it doesn’t have to be. As our data also shows: Building your tech stack around a modern voice solution can solve the dilemma. Let’s dive into the survey results and explore how.

What customers really expect from financial institutions in 2025, and why banks struggle to keep up

Since the first Bank of the United States, opened for business in Philadelphia on December 12, 1791, banking in the U.S. has seen some major changes. Many traditional brick-and-mortar operations like checking an account balance, making an investment, or transferring money have been replaced by internet-based processes like mobile banking, digital wallets, and online payments.

However, other things really haven’t changed at all. Over 200 years in, customers still expect personal and safe interactions from their banks. According to our 2025 state of customer communications survey among over 2,800 global consumers, security and personalization are the top two customer expectations.

Sounds like that should be simple enough to deliver, right? Not quite! Meeting consumer demands for a personalized experience on multiple channels while ensuring compliance, data protection, and security across the board is, in fact, a big challenge for the financial service industry.

When we asked hundreds of financial business leaders in the U.S. about their main concerns around customer communication, 55% of respondents said security and privacy were their top challenges.

And when it comes to a truly personalized customer experience (CX), 32% of financial service business leaders also admit that the lack of personalization is one of their top customer communication challenges. At the same time, financial institutions are also concerned about compliance and security.

So, on the one hand, financial institutions need to gather and analyze tons of customer data to be able to offer the personalized experience their clients expect. On the other hand, they deal with highly sensitive information that needs to be handled with extreme care in order to keep their customers safe.

How can they do that, and what’s the best channel for offering a safe and individualized exchange? Customers have a clear preference – a human voice.

Voice, video, and mobile apps stand out as best channels for user safety and CX in banking

As digital as banking has become, Sinch’s State of customer communications reveals that consumers still prefer face-to-face interactions when discussing personal finances. That’s not surprising. After all, sitting down with a trusted advisor is exactly the type of personalized and secure experience customers are looking for.

And when in-person meetings aren’t possible? Then consumers prefer communication channels that come as close to a face-to-face interaction as possible.

As our survey shows, when it comes to discussing complex or important matters and an in-person conversation isn’t possible, the vast majority of customers (41%) want to talk on the phone or via video call.

The message is clear: When it comes to discussing sensitive data, consumers trust humans the most.

Customers also have very clear preferences on how they want to find out more from their banks about security threats or fraud alerts. According to our survey, 46% of consumers want to follow up on fraud alert notifications over the phone.

In a typical scenario, a customer receives an initial notice about suspicious account activity (maybe via SMS). Then, they’ll have more questions: Was the payment blocked? What are my next steps to secure my account? It’s these sensitive details the customers want to discuss on a channel where they feel the safest: over the phone.

But even when it comes to general support questions, live chats (22%) and phone calls (19%) are the two most popular channels for bank customers after email (31%).

Looking beyond support, 32% of people we surveyed also said that in-app messages would enhance their customer experience with a financial institution.

Here’s what all of this boils down to: Financial service customers prefer human interaction as it delivers that up-and-close and secure experience they’re looking for. They also want to rest assured that the communications they’re receiving from their bank actually come from their bank. And they’re looking for an interactive, personalized exchange. So, even when going omnichannel, calling a human agent should always be available to your customers. Just going digital is not enough. If you want to build trust, reduce fraud, and keep high-value customers from walking – voice isn’t just a nice to have, it’s your building block.

In the following, we’ll explore three ways to put that into practice.

3 ways to use voice in banking services

If you’re serious about winning customer trust and keeping them engaged, voice is essential. A programmable voice API lets you embed voice services across multiple customer touchpoints – and meet your clients’ demands for personal, voice-assisted communication. At the same time, it’ll enable you to use enterprise-grade security and compliance, so you don’t have to worry about meeting the highest safety standards.

Here are three use cases for what a voice API would look like in practice.

Personalized calls to keep customers informed

Customers expect their financial institutions to contact them with information that’s relevant to them. Like: getting a notification when their loan renewal is due, receiving payment updates, or learning more about their current investment options.

By integrating your CRM system with a programmable voice API, it’s easy to keep your customers updated via phone with the information they actually care about. These call notifications can even be automated. Plus, you get access to features like call recordings, transcriptions, or speech-to-text technology that’ll allow you to safely gather customer data to offer an even better service.

What’s even more: With a reliable programmable voice API provider like Sinch, you don’t have to worry about secure connections. Security is baked into every part of our voice technology, and our platform protects sensitive customer interactions through advanced features like encryption, ISO 27001 certification, STIR/SHAKEN protocols, and meets comprehensive compliance standards like the GDPR.

Customer-friendly in-app calls and video chats

Clearly, consumers place a lot of trust in live interactions and verified channels like their bank’s app. With programmable voice, you can easily integrate voice and video calls directly into your app.

Let’s say a customer gets a push notification on the banking app about a possible fraudulent activity. They see it right away and want to talk to your support team for more information. Now, the in-app calling feature lets them place a phone or video call directly from within the app. You could also integrate this on your website if that’s a popular touchpoint with your customers. In both cases, it reduces any friction in switching from an app or website to a call, and, in a critical situation, you also offer fast and reliable communication on the channels banking customers trust the most.

Secure communication your customers can trust

A programmable voice API also adds that layer of security your customers are looking for. Think: verifying a user’s identity via SMS, phone call, or flash call before giving them access to their bank account information.

For instance, customers could set up their mobile or even landline number to receive one-time passwords. You could then use the voice API’s text-to-speech software to deliver a phone call with a voice code – even in multiple languages.

This makes fraud detection and prevention easier on your end while also enhancing your customers’ safety.

There are also options for secure communication within apps. For example, Sinch’s programmable voice in-app calling offers call masking to prevent bad actors from impersonating your institution. In-app calling is also end-to-end encrypted, making it harder for unauthorized parties to intercept calls or access sensitive data.

Plus, you can integrate it with your own app’s authentication systems like a two-factor authentication (2FA). This ensures that only authorized users can initiate or receive calls.

With in-app calling, the communication data remains within a secure environment, reducing exposure to third-party vulnerabilities.

Moving forward: Voice isn’t a fallback in banking, it should be your foundation

These are just a few examples that show how adding modern voice services ensure a smooth, personalized, and secure customer communication on the channels your customers actually prefer and trust.

Plus, depending on your needs, there are plenty of possibilities down the line to bundle Sinch’s programmable Voice API with chatbots, voice bots, AI agents, a cloud-based contact center, email and SMS services, as well as verification methods – all from one provider with the same high security standards, strong SLAs, and a global carrier network. So, you can expand at your pace without the complexity of having to use multiple platforms.

You’re probably wondering if a programmable voice API will increase your overhead or be extremely time consuming? Don’t worry, it won’t. While Sinch’s programmable voice API is developer-friendly, we also provide hands-on guidance throughout: from the initial technical evaluation to detailed documentation and SDK resources to comprehensive technical support from our team of experts whenever you need it.

Ready to learn more about Sinch’s voice offering for financial services? Check out our programmable voice API, or reach out directly to our voice experts.

And for further insights into our cloud-based tools for the banking sector, explore Sinch’s financial services solutions in more depth.

The post Clients want safe, personal service – banks struggle to deliver: Can voice help? appeared first on Sinch.

However you do it, user verification is a standard part of the sign-in or sign-up process, helping you reduce fraud, protect your platform, and assure customers that you take security seriously. Even though verification can sometimes feel like a hassle, Sinch’s latest research found consumers say these extra steps either make them feel safer (49%) or are a necessary inconvenience (27%).

While almost every business is on board with user authentication in some form, forward-thinking companies are reassessing their verification strategies to stay ahead of evolving threats and changing customer expectations. If your process isn’t optimized for security, user experience, and cost-efficiency, you could end up with frustrated customers and spiraling costs. Worse, it could compromise security and leave your business open to fraud.

Not sure whether your process is working? Here are six signs that it’s time for a verification update.

1. Your verification costs are climbing

Are your verification costs creeping up? You’re not the only one. Verification costs can mount quickly for several reasons: inefficient processes, working with multiple third-party providers, and hidden fees for failed verifications.

The key to reducing costs is optimizing your verification process. Switching to a provider that offers direct carrier connections eliminates the middleman, which can reduce fees and improve reliability at the same time. It can also be useful to take a closer look at your authentication methods. For example, if SMS is expensive or unreliable in your region, tools like WhatsApp OTP or Flash Call could be more cost-effective.

2. Artificial inflation of traffic (AIT) is driving up costs

Are you noticing higher verification costs without a corresponding rise in sign-ups? This could be the result of Artificial Inflation Traffic (AIT). AIT increases verification costs by generating fake requests, clogging up your system and making it difficult to distinguish real users from fraudsters. Without proactive monitoring, these requests can significantly increase your verification costs and – worse – increase security risk for your business.

Advanced fraud detection tools and providers with direct carrier connections can help minimize AIT. With fraud-fighting tactics like real-time monitoring and analytics to detect suspicious requests, you can reduce the volume of fraudulent traffic and keep your verification budget down. More importantly, you’re mitigating the risk of fraud and maintaining trust in your platform.

“It can take just one bad actor to disrupt parts of the mobile ecosystem and generate fake SMS OTP traffic. And the longer the chain of trust, the more opportunities there are for bad actors to take advantage of this system. Ultimately, this is an issue for the whole industry.”

Lee Suker Head of Authentication and Number Information, Sinch

Want to know more about fraud, waste, and AIT? Read the insights on combating AIT in our 2024 report.

3. Failed logins are frustrating your customers

Few things are more frustrating than failed verifications. A customer types in all their details, clicks to confirm, then a missing SMS OTP (one-time password) means they can’t complete their sign-in or make a purchase. It’s a recipe for frustrated customers, abandoned sign-ups, and lost sales.

Thanks to increasingly sophisticated verification and sales platforms, customers expect a smooth, stress-free user experience – any fuss or friction in the process could make them switch to a competitor.

Preventing verification failures requires fast, secure authentication methods and built-in backup systems. For example, you could use an optimized delivery route to send SMS codes, with an alternate method for users in areas with poor connectivity. The goal is a reliable process that works for everyone and minimizes log-in failures.

Want to know more? See how seamless verification can boost conversion rates and keep users engaged from the start.

4. Cost-cutting has had unexpected consequences

Saving money on verification should never come at the cost of quality. Some businesses switch providers in an attempt to lower verification costs, only to face failed verifications, increased customer queries, or higher fraud risks. Dealing with these outcomes can eat into any cost savings and erode trust in your business. These unexpected costs can outstrip the savings involved, undermining the reason for the initial change.

A strategic approach balances affordability with performance. It’s important to weigh the direct costs of your verification system against success rates and customer experience – not to mention security and fraud risk. Look for a well-regarded provider that offers realistic, long-term savings instead of rock-bottom prices.

5. Fear of switching APIs is holding your business back

You’ve seen the signs, spotted the red flags: Your old API just isn’t as efficient as it used to be. For a while now, your instinct has been telling you it’s time for a change. But you keep pushing the thought away.

Switching verification providers can feel daunting – you don’t want to deal with integration challenges, migration issues, and potential disruptions to service. That’s probably why so many businesses continue to use their older verification API, even when it’s inefficient or out-of-date.

However, if your system is starting to crack, it’s time to take the plunge and find a newer provider. It could be much less stressful than you think. Modern verification APIs are designed for seamless integration, which means minimal migration headaches and a smooth implementation. And when your new system is up and running, improved performance, reliability, and cost savings should make it worth the effort.

“Since we launched Sinch Verification in our app, our conversion rate went up by about 7% compared to our previous supplier. This is a huge increase for us; the numbers are much more stable now than previously, and the errors and support cases have essentially stopped altogether.”

Robert Petersen Business Developer, EasyPark Group

6. Your cheap SMS solution is slowing you down

SMS OTPs are a handy verification method – but only if you can trust messages to reach customers almost every time. Choose a carrier based on cost alone, and you could end up facing low delivery rates, missing passcodes, and exposure to AIT, which can affect customer experience and operational efficiency. Again, it’s a case where initial savings lead to higher indirect costs down the road.

If you’re choosing an SMS provider, it’s crucial to consider reliability, security, and scalability as well as price. Partner with a provider that offers direct carrier connections and high delivery rates, along with modern fraud prevention tools and redundancy options. If an SMS code does fail to land, your system should failover to another method automatically, with minimal impact on the customer experience.

As always, it’s about creating an effective, future-focused verification system that works for you and your customers.

Future-proof your verification strategy

Seeing signs of strain in your verification process? As the verification landscape evolves, customer expectations rise, and fraudsters find new ways around security systems, businesses that optimize their systems now will be better-prepared for the future. With that in mind, smart user authentication as much a strategic advantage as it is a day-to-day operational tool.

Whether your business is a global powerhouse, a big-name brand, or an emerging SMB, Sinch can help you enhance platform security with scalable multi-factor authentication solutions built with the user in mind. Learn how you can keep customers safe and costs under control with Sinch’s Verification API. Or, if you want to discuss what makes Sinch the best choice for your business – let’s chat.

The post 6 signs your user authentication is failing you appeared first on Sinch.

Running a business with just one WhatsApp phone number feels like trying to answer every customer call from a single landline. It’s clunky, slow, and completely unrealistic.

If you’re trying to provide fast, reliable customer support but your team is passing around one phone or locked out of conversations entirely, you’re not alone.

Here’s what you need to know about how to use WhatsApp Business on multiple devices, what the free app can do, and when it’s time to switch to a setup that actually works for a growing team.

WhatsApp Business for multiple users

The free WhatsApp Business app that many companies start out with is designed for very small businesses with no more than five employees. But once your WhatsApp channel grows, it doesn’t take long before it turns into a bottleneck for the customer experience.

With WhatsApp becoming more popular, this won’t take too long. According to our 2025 Sinch report, The state of customer communications, 15% of Gen Z prefer to use messaging apps like WhatsApp for support conversations. And 40% of consumers of all ages say that they use OTT channels like WhatsApp to interact with businesses.

That’s why being stuck passing a phone around with the same WhatsApp business number will get very cumbersome very fast. All it takes is one person out sick or out of reach, and suddenly no one can respond to a customer inquiry.

Passing around the “WhatsApp phone” between team members becomes a logistical nightmare. Your inbox becomes chaotic, WhatsApp messages pile up, response times suffer, and customers grow frustrated waiting for answers.

That’s why WhatsApp introduced a multi-device feature for the business app. With this setup, you can connect up to four additional devices to the same WhatsApp Business account. Everyone can access the same inbox from their own device, so they no longer have to share phones or chase down replies.

Let’s consider a direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand selling skincare across the U.S. Their support team works across time zones from New York to California, but only the New York team has the WhatsApp phone. By the time their day starts, they’ve missed dozens of messages and customer inquiries that came in later in the evening from the West Coast.

Or, let’s say a local radio station in the UK uses WhatsApp to interact with listeners, run audience competitions, and manage donations. Even with everyone working in the same office, passing one phone around departments to handle all of these messages turns into an organizational disaster.

That’s where many turn to WhatsApp’s multi-device feature for the business app. While multi-device access helps slightly, you can’t solve the real problems of lack of routing, visibility, and automation. Let’s explore why.

How to use WhatsApp Business on multiple devices: The basics

The multi-device setup process for the WhatsApp Business app is identical to the standard WhatsApp messenger app you use to talk to your friends and family. Your primary device must be a smartphone, but you can connect laptops, desktops, tablets, and additional phones to access the same business conversations through WhatsApp Web or Desktop.

We’ll walk you through the setup process for Android and iOS.

Android setup

Open WhatsApp Business and tap the three dots in the top right corner.

Select Linked devices, then Link a device and confirm. Scan the QR code displayed on the device you want to connect.

iOS setup

On your iPhone, go to WhatsApp settings → Linked devices → Link a device. Authenticate with Face ID, Touch ID, or your PIN, then scan the QR code on the target device.

Adding companion phones

Download WhatsApp Business on the second phone and tap Link as companion device (instead of setting up a new WhatsApp Business account). This creates a QR code that you scan with your primary phone as with the standard linking process.

Technical requirements

Your primary phone number needs to come online every 14 days to keep linked devices active in real time. With WhatsApp Business Premium (Meta Verified subscription), you can connect up to ten different devices instead of the standard four, plus assign specific conversations to individual team members and access advanced permissions settings.

Live location and status features don’t work on linked devices or companion phones. Successfully linked companion phones show “This is a linked device” in their settings menu.

The connection stays active even when your primary phone is offline, but all linked devices get disconnected if the main phone remains offline for two weeks straight.

Limitations of the multi-agent feature on the WhatsApp Business app

With a Meta Verified subscription, you can connect up to ten devices and keep them active even when the primary phone is offline (as long as it reconnects within 14 days).

But while the extra seats sound appealing, there are still key limitations that make this setup a poor fit for most businesses that want to scale their WhatsApp messaging:

• Chat deletion doesn’t sync properly if the main device is an iOS device.
• Linked devices can neither create nor view broadcast lists or templates.
• You don’t have workflow automation or quick replies for common FAQs.
• There’s no option of linking all devices to a central team inbox.
• Because you use the WhatsApp Business app, all the restrictions of the app remain in place (no newsletters or push notifications, no bots, no CRM integration, no analytics for use cases, etc.).
• There’s no access to WhatsApp Flows or integration with other messaging apps.
• The pricing model isn’t cost-effective to scale for growing teams.

The bottom line: Multi-device access doesn’t solve the fundamental WhatsApp scaling problems that growing businesses face.

Radio Arabella, a leading radio station in Germany, ran into this exact wall.

As message volume grew, even with four team members accessing the same WhatsApp Business account, they couldn’t keep up. Messages piled up, response times suffered, and the team realized they needed professional tools instead of more device connections tied to a specific phone and number.

More seats don’t fix a system that’s missing the infrastructure to scale.

Data compliance is also a concern. Even though the WhatsApp Business app uses end-to-end encryption across connected devices, the setup still relies on a smartphone as the core. That makes it hard to impossible to fully meet regulations like the GDPR or California Consumer Privacy Act, especially when multiple employees access sensitive customer data from personal devices.

Conversations 12 min

How businesses can use WhatsApp and ensure data protection (yes, it’s possible!)

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For businesses that need to stay compliant while managing higher volumes of customer conversations, the WhatsApp Business API is a safer bet.

WhatsApp Business API: Properly scaling WhatsApp communication

The WhatsApp Business API provides the professional-grade tools that growing businesses need for customer communication and automation. Unlike the basic WhatsApp Business app, setting up an API account gives you access to chatbots, automated workflow tools, SMS integration, and comprehensive analytics across social media channels.

You have two main options for accessing these capabilities, depending on the level of tech support and customization you require:

• A custom API implementation, for those with in-house development teams
• A turnkey solution, offered by official WhatsApp Business Solution Providers, for teams that want to get started quickly without any coding

Both options offer the same main benefits: an unlimited number of agents, automated messages, chatbot tools, CRM integration, and in-depth analytics to see how things are going.

Retailers can use the API to send personalized delivery updates and flash sale alerts. Clinics can use it to automate appointment reminders and intake forms. Logistics companies can use it to trigger proactive delay notifications. And all of this is managed from a central inbox that anybody in the company can access – without any agent limits.

The result? Fewer missed connections, higher customer engagement, and lower support costs.

Whichever option you choose, it’s essential to work with a verified WhatsApp Business Solution Provider (BSP) like Sinch. Only BSPs are authorized to offer WhatsApp business solutions. They’ll also ensure you’re set up correctly, stay compliant with data privacy laws, and have the right tools in place to scale customer conversations without friction.

Want to explore what this could look like for your business? Reach out to a Sinch expert to talk through the options.

The post WhatsApp Business for multiple users: Setup, limits, and upgrades appeared first on Sinch.

For a long time, messages sent between iPhones and Androids defaulted to traditional SMS. SMS is reliable and reaches every mobile phone on the planet (that’s over seven billion people!). With its instant delivery straight to a phone’s native messaging inbox, no extra apps, and no sign-ups needed, SMS is easy and to-the-point. But now, SMS has to share its spotlight.  

With Apple’s new support for Rich Communication Services (RCS) on iOS, more messages can be rich and interactive. Just like before, the messages land in a user’s native mobile inbox – only now, fewer are basic text messaging, and more are dynamic RCS content.  

In this article, we’ll compare RCS vs iMessage for personal communication now that Apple supports RCS. We’ll also look at Apple and Google’s business messaging solutions and help you decide which is best for your strategy.

RCS vs iMessage for P2P messaging: Understanding the basics

Let’s first look at Google and Apple’s person-to-person (P2P) messaging solutions: RCS and iMessage.  

Both RCS and iMessage have over a billion users each and function similarly to popular over-the-top (OTT) messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. But the key difference? They don’t require users to download an additional app or create a new account. Instead, they work within the framework of a user’s native messaging inbox. They support rich media, like high-quality images and videos, and offer features like read receipts and typing indicators. While both RCS messages and iMessages travel over Wi-Fi or a mobile data connection, they can fall back to SMS if this connection isn’t available.

What is Rich Communication Services (RCS)?

RCS is a modern messaging protocol developed by the GSM Association (GSMA) to upgrade SMS and MMS. It delivers a rich messaging experience that includes videos, images, voice memos, maps, and more.

Until 2024, RCS messaging was limited to Android phones. With iOS 18, Apple introduced RCS support for P2P messaging in select markets, expanding further with iOS 18.5. There are a number of different carriers that support RCS messaging on iPhones in select markets.

This means richer messaging experiences for Android and Apple users who are messaging each other, including features like read receipts, typing indicators, and better group chat experiences, regardless of their mobile operating system.

There are 3.9 billion Android users worldwide, with devices from manufacturers like Samsung, Google, and OnePlus. While not all of these devices have RCS enabled, it’s worth noting that RCS is the default messaging app on most new devices that run Android OS. Google reports that over one billion monthly active users have RCS enabled, and it has strong support from global mobile operators.

What is iMessage?

iMessage is Apple’s proprietary instant messaging service for iOS devices like iPhones, iPads, and Macs. It supports text, photos, multimedia, voice memos, locations, videos, and more, which are all transmitted over an internet connection or cellular data. iMessages are always end-to-end encrypted and appear in blue text bubbles on Apple devices. 

Apple says over two billion users actively use its hardware. Apple devices are particularly popular in countries like Japan, the United States, and Australia for all ages up to 65.  

iMessage is exclusive for Apple devices, so if an iPhone user messages someone with an Android, RCS is possible if it’s enabled; otherwise, the message defaults to SMS.

Comparing RCS vs iMessage

When it comes to functionality for P2P messaging, both RCS and iMessage include rich messaging experiences. However, there are a few notable differences between the two.

Here’s a quick comparison chart of RCS vs iMessage for P2P messaging:

While both channels enhance the user experience beyond text messages, RCS doesn’t yet have end-to-end encryption across messaging services, though Apple has confirmed that the Universal Profile 3.0, which supports end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging, will be available in a future iOS update. On the other hand, iMessage offers end-to-end encryption for P2P messages but is limited to Apple devices.

“In the not-so-distant future, end-to-end encryption will be supported on both iOS and Android devices, ensuring messages will remain private and protected regardless of the messaging technology a user is communicating from.”

Miriam Liszewski RCS Commercial Product Manager at Sinch

Is RCS messaging better than iMessage?

With Apple’s adoption of RCS on iOS, you might wonder if RCS somehow has an advantage over iMessage. But it’s not that simple.  

Both RCS and iMessage have their strengths and appeal to different user groups. For example, iMessage dominates in markets like the U.S., where Apple holds around 60% market share. But globally, Android leads with over a 70% global market share, so if you’re trying to reach someone using a non-Apple device, you’ll likely use RCS. 

RCS and iMessage are both popular for P2P messaging, but Google and Apple also have business messaging solutions to help you reach your audience in the best possible ways.

_{Now that Apple supports RCS on iPhones, will RCS replace iMessage someday? Not quite. In this short video, Miriam Liszewski, RCS Product Manager at Sinch, explains how RCS will continue to complement, rather than replace, iMessage.}

RCS for Business vs Apple Messages for Businesses

Customers expect messaging with brands to feel as easy and trusted as texting a friend. According to our 2025 State of customer communications report, 30% of consumers want promotional messages via text messaging, while 42% are more likely to trust messages that include visual indicators like logos or verified badges. RCS for Business and Apple Messages for Business (AMB) both deliver interactive features that meet these expectations, giving brands a more secure, engaging way to connect.

What is RCS for Business?

Google’s RCS for Business solution (previously called RBM) lets businesses communicate with subscribers with interactive messages that feel similar to chat apps. But unlike popular apps, RCS works within the native messaging app on a user’s smartphone. 

RCS for Business offers a few different message types for businesses to reach customers with branded messaging. These vary in cost and have different supported features but all offer improvements over SMS messages.

In 2025, our research found that 87% of business leaders across healthcare, financial services, retail, and tech are at least somewhat familiar with RCS – and 59% believe it will be game-changing for business messaging.

Insights 9 min

Types of RCS for Business messages and how to use them

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What is Apple Messages for Businesses (AMB)?

Apple Messages for Business (AMB) lets users message businesses from their phone, Mac, or Apple Watch. Only customers can initiate a conversation in AMB – businesses can’t send unsolicited messages. Once the conversation is deleted, businesses can’t re-engage unless the customer chooses to restart it.

AMB is designed for moments when customers are ready to connect, whether they’re booking an appointment or seeking support, and integrates with Apple Pay for in-conversation purchases. When a customer does reach out via AMB, businesses can respond with rich, engaging content like slideshows, videos, and more.

Comparing RCS for Business and Apple Messages for Businesses

Google and Apple’s business messaging solutions cater to different customer needs. This chart shows how RCS vs AMB compare.

When should brands use RCS for Business vs AMB?

Choosing between RCS for Business and AMB really comes down to your goals and your customers’ preferences. If you want to proactively reach out to customers with rich messaging, RCS is a great pick. But if your audience mostly uses Apple devices and prefers to initiate the conversation, AMB is the way to go.  

Our advice? Focus on your customer base, the channels they use, and how each channel fits into your omnichannel marketing strategy. The right messaging platform can boost how you and your audience connect.

RCS for Business use cases

RCS conversational messages offer flexibility in how conversations are started. When a user responds to a brand’s RCS message within 24 hours, it’s considered an A2P (Application-to-Person) conversation. If the customer reaches out after 24 hours, it becomes a P2A (Person-to-Application) conversation.  

RCS’s rich business features – like verified sender profiles and interactive elements – make it ideal for various use cases:  

• Marketing campaigns (like Black Friday marketing)  

• Location-based offers 

• Abandoned cart reminders 

• Customer newsletters 

• Appointment reminders 

• Critical notifications and one-time passwords

Insights 10 min

10+ RCS use cases and messaging examples for your business

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AMB use cases

AMB is designed for customer-initiated conversations. Users start conversations with businesses through entry points like Safari, Apple Maps, or directly from your own website. AMB is particularly strong for commerce because it integrates with Apple Pay so users can make in-conversation purchases. It’s ideal for enterprises that want to engage users right when they reach out. 

Here are a few great use cases for AMB:  

• Booking appointments 

• Requesting product information 

• Asking FAQs 

• Reporting issues 

• Customer support inquiries 

It’s worth noting that launching on AMB requires end-to-end certification by Apple. This includes a comprehensive review of your brand’s entire implementation, from conversation flows and chatbot behavior to live agent handover processes.

And potential use cases may vary by region. For example, in North America, AMB recently introduced a new message type in their Business Messages API that lets businesses send proactive push notifications to subscribers through the Messages app.

Maximize your messaging strategy with RCS and AMB

Whatever your messaging goals, conversational messaging can greatly enhance your strategy by meeting customers where they are, in the apps that they already use and trust. While Apple Messages for Business offers a premium customer support experience, it also comes with strict technical, operational, and compliance requirements that may not be the right fit for most businesses.

That’s why we recommend exploring other rich messaging options like RCS or WhatsApp, which can deliver engaging, branded, and interactive experiences at scale. With the right approach, you can build a conversational experience that’s tailored to your audience, without the complexity.

For more guidance on conversational messaging, feel free to check out these additional resources:  

• Could your marketing communications mix be working harder? 
• 6 RCS campaign ideas to brighten your holiday marketing 
• RCS for retail and ecommerce: Richer messages, better results
• Five easy ways to send WhatsApp promotional messages
• RCS marketing 101: Your complete guide for trusted, interactive messaging 
• 10+ examples of mobile marketing campaigns to inspire you 

When you’re ready to implement RCS or other messaging channels, integration is simple with Sinch Conversation API. Reach out to us to get started with optimizing your messaging strategy.

The post RCS vs iMessage: What’s the difference? appeared first on Sinch.

To get a clearer picture of where retail communication stands today, Sinch surveyed over 2,800 global consumers and 400 U.S. retail business leaders as part of our 2025 report, The state of customer communications. Perhaps unsurprisingly, consumers often said they want speed, personalization, and relevance in every message.

For retailers, though, there are a few common challenges to getting there. Budgets are tight – and integration is tough. They may fully intend to meet customer expectations, but the execution is where teams get stuck.

Here’s the good news: The same research also points to a clear opportunity for retailers: Rich Communication Services (RCS) as a way to connect in a quick, personal, and branded way in the native mobile messaging inbox. And according to our research, it’s one of the most promising ways to drive engagement in retail.

What retail marketers are up against (2025 survey insights)

The 2025 State of customer communications survey surfaced three major customer communication challenges retailers face:

• Cost (40%) tops the list. For marketers, that can mean that proving ROI of campaigns and technology is always top of mind.
• Lack of personalization (35%) also stands out, even though 44% of retail brands said they’re already using AI to personalize product recommendations. There’s clearly a bit of a gap between the capabilities of AI and the experience it provides.
• Integration with other systems and outdated technologies (tied at 34%) continue to slow retailers down. For marketers, omnichannel strategies are moving fast, so maybe legacy tools aren’t keeping up.

Meanwhile, customers are asking for more:

• 42% of consumers want messages based on their personal preferences
• 29% expect product recommendations based on their purchase history 

And who can blame them? They’re used to personalization in their lives, especially in retail and ecommerce, where the best brands already do it.

This is exactly the kind of pressure retailers are feeling, and the opportunity RCS is built to meet. At NRF 2025: Retail’s Biggest Show APAC, Neil Patwardhan, SVP of Sales for APAC at Sinch, explained how RCS helps brands rise to this challenge.

“If you think about the future of conversational messaging with your customers, the retail market and the retail landscape is evolving at a rapid rate. And more and more customers are wanting to engage on the channel they want to be reached on.”

Neil Patwardhan SVP Sales – APAC at Sinch

Why RCS is great for retail engagement

Retail marketers today are caught between high customer expectations and disconnected tools, cost pressures, and difficulties in delivering personalization. And even the best messaging strategies can fall short if they don’t meet customers’ expectations.

RCS offers the potential to reshape how brands connect with their audiences, and, when used strategically, can lead to reduced cart abandonment, higher conversion rates, and boosted sales. Among retail leaders familiar with RCS, 53% believe RCS will be a game-changer for customer communications. Here are the top three ways they believe they’ll benefit from RCS:

• Improved customer satisfaction (41%)
• Improved security (39%)
• Better personalized experiences (33%)

Despite these benefits, retailers were actually the least enthusiastic among the industries we surveyed to describe RCS as game-changing, and the least likely to have already adopted it. This means that RCS could be a powerful way for early adopters to stand out from the competition.

And once you can see what RCS can do, it’s easy to understand why. RCS upgrades SMS from basic text messaging to having capabilities like:

• Verified sender details that show your logo and colors in every message
• Suggested reply buttons that help move along a conversation
• Real-time, two-way conversations with multimedia to show (not just tell!) your story
• Delivery, open, and read receipts for better tracking

That could be why some marketers have seen campaign results with a 100% increase in click-through-rate compared to SMS, or 200% increases compared to email.

_{In this video, Sinch RCS Product Manager Miriam Liszewski talks through and shows a few different ways ecommerce brands can use RCS.}

6 ways to use RCS in retail and ecommerce (with examples)

Let’s take you through a few ways brands have used RCS to improve ROI and make customers feel extra special.

1. Personalized promotions and offers

RCS helps you make promotions more personal. Our 2025 consumer survey found that more than 70% of consumers believe personalized shopping recommendations from an AI chatbot could be helpful, so clearly you shouldn’t rely on a one-size-fits-all approach.

With RCS, you can curate a personalized shopping experience for every customer. This could look like triggering an offer based on their recent purchase or browsing behavior, adding a product carousel, and having a few buttons for them to have a conversation with a bot.

And it works. Picard, a French frozen food retailer, used RCS and a chatbot to help customers plan their holiday meals based on a budget, diet, and cooking time. Bon appétit!

_{Watch the video to learn how food retailer Picard used RCS to create an interactive catalog their customers could use to imagine their holiday menus.}

The result? A click-through rate that was three times higher than Rich SMS and 10% more website redirections.

2. Dynamic product catalogs

Imagine you’re sitting on the train or relaxing at home, browsing through your messages. Suddenly, an RCS message arrives from your favorite, trusted brand and includes a showcase of their latest products in a dynamic catalog.

RCS lets retailers turn messaging into a mini storefront, complete with rich, swipeable carousels with images and clickable options that can be browsed from the comfort of wherever someone happens to be browsing.

ATOL, a French optician chain, used RCS to guide their customers through purchasing new eyeglasses and book in-person appointments at their stores. As part of their campaign, their customers could visualize their chosen eyewear digitally before visiting a store or making a purchase. Talk about a great customer experience!

A/B testing showed how powerful their strategy was, with a 5x higher click rate and 99% more in-store appointment conversions compared to Rich SMS.

3. Abandoned cart recovery

Abandoned cart recovery is one of the highest ROI plays in e-commerce… if you do it right. In our 2025 survey, 54% of consumers said they preferred abandoned cart notifications as an RCS message over SMS or MMS – probably because of the branding, buttons, and carousels that you can include in the message.

Cdiscount, a major French e-commerce platform, offers a great example. They used RCS to send customers rich holiday offers and deals that included images, videos, and guided responses in their messages.

Thanks to their RCS campaign, Cdiscount saw a 9% increase in average basket size as compared to previous campaigns.

RCS helps brands show up in the moment with messages that feel helpful, relevant, timely, and easy to act on.

4. Order tracking updates

Today’s shoppers want to stay informed, and they want it to be easy. Our survey found:

• 52% of consumers were comfortable with an AI chatbot giving them order and shipping updates.
• 45% think returns/exchanges via mobile messaging would be convenient.

And RCS helps brands meet those needs in a super interactive way. Right after a customer checks out, you can send them a branded, visual message confirming their order. You could include product images, their name, and even a map showing the delivery route or a countdown to the expected arrival time.

After someone makes a purchase, they will be eager to hear from you! RCS lets you show them this information in a visually appealing way that feels easy to act on.

5. Loyalty programs and win-back campaigns

Loyalty is earned in every message you send to your customers. For nearly 54% of consumers we surveyed, personalized rewards and loyalty messages were the ones that matter most! These kinds of messages are personal by nature because they connect directly to what your customer’s already invested in.

RCS loyalty programs can be simple, but powerful. Think:

• Showing real-time loyalty point balances
• Highlighting exclusive offers or early access deals in swipeable carousels
• Letting users redeem points directly in the conversation

Here’s some inspiration to help you create an RCS loyalty program: Citadium, a fashion retailer, wanted to improve revenue during the busy Black Friday period. They had used SMS in years past, but this time, they turned to RCS to offer their customers rewards and discounts.

Their campaign had impressive results, with a 22% increase in conversions and an 85% engagement rate! Particularly effective for Black Friday marketing initiatives, RCS lets retailers connect and interact with customers.

6. Real-time support

Of course, loyalty is about more than discount codes. A good or bad customer service experience can make or break how loyal your customers are – especially because in 2025, fast, accessible support is what consumers expect.

And the vast majority of retailers know this, with 96% of retailer leaders we surveyed saying they use conversational commerce in some way:

• 59% use it to give personalized product recommendations
• 55% use it for answering product questions in customer support
• 47% use it for managing refunds and returns

This is where AI and real-time messaging comes in. When connected to messaging channels, AI can give customers quick, clear answers when they need them most.

RCS supports this with two-way, branded messaging that lets you:

• Handle FAQs and support queries with chatbots
• Seamlessly escalate conversations to live agents
• Keep everything in one consistent thread

The bottom line: When something goes wrong, your customers should be able to turn to your messaging channels as a quick, easy path to resolution. In turn, you’ll earn their loyalty.

Retail engagement doesn’t have to be hard

Consumers expect more from retailers. That’s been true for a while. But what’s changed is how much easier you can meet their expectations if you’re using the right tools and channels.

Nearly 90% of retailers plan to invest in customer communications in 2025. In the U.S., 35% of retailers we surveyed said they plan to invest in RCS for Business, building on the 26% who are already using it to create more engaging customer experiences. So if you’re considering new ways to connect, why not invest in something with proven results?

RCS gives retail marketers a modern way to connect, from promotions to support, right in the native mobile messaging inbox customers use every day.

And with Sinch Conversation API, you can deliver those experiences across channels without reinventing your workflow, so you can focus less on the tech and more on providing the best customer experience across the entire customer journey.

Want the full picture? Check out the full State of customer communications report to see where your retail peers are headed, and how to stay ahead.

The post RCS for retail and ecommerce: Richer messages, better results appeared first on Sinch.

Telegram might have started as an underdog in the world of instant messaging apps, but quickly became the fastest growing messaging tool. Currently, Telegram has one billion monthly active users worldwide. Part of the reason for that is: the easy integration and use of chatbots on Telegram. 

In this guide, we’ll take a closer look at Telegram’s chatbots, explore what they are, how you can create them, and check out some examples of Telegram bots in action. 

What’s a chatbot for Telegram? 

A Telegram chatbot is an application that runs on the Telegram messaging platform. It’s set up to interact with users and automate specific tasks or provide information automatically when prompted. 

Users can interact with these bots by sending commands or messages, and the bots respond accordingly. You can either use Telegram’s own bot builder, the BotFather or the API to create bots.

Why are chatbots on Telegram so popular?

Unlike WhatsApp, Telegram is an open-source platform that supports the integration of third-party bots (similar to Discord). As a result, anybody who has fun building chatbots, can add a bot to the platform. This has led to a plethora of Telegram bots that can help users with a variety of tasks. 

These range from getting automatic updates about cheap flights to checking your Gmail to translating messages in a chat. This makes it both easy and fun for people to use and engage with the bots, which has made Telegram chatbots so popular. 

At the same time, bot technologies have become more advanced and in the past years, the user experience has gone from awkward and frustrating to smooth and helpful. That’s also made chatbots on messaging apps like Telegram more popular with users. As our 2025 Sinch survey, The state of customer communications among 2,800 participants from 12 countries, shows: Well over half of consumers are using chatbots through text messaging or on their websites.

Additionally, more than 40% say they use social media direct messaging (DMs) and OTT channels like WhatsApp or Telegram. This indicates that consumers aren’t just more used to interacting with chatbots on messaging apps, they’ve started to expect it because it helps them solve issues quicker and get answers to questions much faster.

That’s why businesses should start looking into adding a virtual assistant to a messaging platform like Telegram.

How to use a Telegram chatbot

The easiest way to use a Telegram bot is to search for an existing one on the platform, and activate it. You’ll find game bots that you can use to play games with friends on Telegram, translation tools, and many more. 

The best way to use a Telegram bot is to simply check out the ones you like, and try them out! We’ll show you a few examples down below to give you a first impression of what you can do with a chatbot on Telegram.

Create and add a chatbot to Telegram

Every bot has a unique name. You can add an existing bot on Telegram by searching for its name, and then clicking on it. You’ll then get an explanation of what the bot can do, and you can deploy it. 

If you want to create a Telegram chatbot, the BotFather is actually the perfect starting point, as it’s a chatbot designed to create other bots. Following the prompt /newbot, you can use this bot to help you design new ones. The BotFather guides you through the initial process.

Once you’ve set up your bot with a handle and a username, you can find some helpful commands under /help, and Telegram also offers tutorials, but it does take some developer skills to actually create a working bot. 

If you’re more advanced, you can also use Telegram’s API to create a bot from scratch. This requires programming knowledge, but also gives you more freedom and options for designing exactly the bot you want. 

How to add a Telegram chatbot to a group

Bots can be a great way to make your Telegram group more fun and engaging. And, if you have a very active group that requires moderators, bots can also take over some of the tedious admin tasks, such as recognizing offensive content. 

As with the bots for your own use, for groups you can also either build your own bot through the API or use a bot builder tool like the BotFather.

For adding the bot, open your Telegram group and go to “members”, and then select “add member”, as if you were going to add a new member. Now, use the search function to look for the name of the bot you want to add. Once it shows up on the list, you can go ahead and add the bot to your group. 

It might take a bit until Telegram has updated the group and added the bot. You and your members can then interact with the bot by tagging it (type “@” and then the name of the bot). Depending on the type of bot you added, you can now play games, ask it questions, or use the commands that are set up for other features. 

For example, if you add a poll bot, you can start a new poll, see results, and end a poll by following the bot’s menu prompts. Let’s say you want to start a new poll, then you activate the bot first by typing “@PollBot” in the chat, and then selecting the command “/newpoll@PollBot”. 

And if you want to see the results of a poll, you just type “@PollBot” and then “/results@PollBot”, and can then see and also share the results with the group. 

Examples of useful chatbots on Telegram

The following examples give you a good first impression of the full potential of Telegram bots, from fun to fancy, from beginner to business. 

DropMail.me (@DropMailBot): disposable e-mail addresses

The DropMail bot is perfect if you need to provide an e-mail address, but don’t want to share your private mail in order to avoid spam. The DropMail bot then sends you disposable email addresses that can are automatically deleted ten minutes after they’re used.

Free ChatGPT chatbot for Telegram

Of course there’s a way to add a ChatGPT bot to Telegram as well. Actually, there’s several GPT bots on Telegram, such as the Plasma GPT AI bot or the ChatGPT & Midjourney bot that’ll allow you to generate text and images on Telegram. These are some of the features the GPT tools offer: 

• generate information about an image
• summing up content of a website or video
• voice conversations

Keep in mind that more advanced features require the paid ChatGPT version. Also be mindful of using an external AI tool for handling personal customer data. You might have to set up additional compliance and security barriers for that.

Conversations 8 min

Chatbots and security: Issues, solutions, and best practices

Learn more

Washington Post Ukraine newsletter bot

For media publications, it’s crucial to reach readers with the most important news as soon as possible. Especially with fast developing news, such as the war in Ukraine, doing this via e-mail isn’t ideal.

First, sending out more than one e-mail per day, can be perceived as spam. Second, people don’t check their e-mails that often, so you might not even be able to reach them with the news as they’re happening. And third, in critical situations, people sometimes only have access to a few apps on their phone. 

As a publisher, you also get the readers’ full attention and can get news to them faster, especially when adding a bot. That’s why, during the first months of the Ukraine war, The Washington Post used a Telegram chatbot to send out newsletters to their interested readers. Whenever there was a new development, The Post sent out an update. The bot handled the sign-up, and opt-in consent, and then automatically deployed the news stories.

Especially in the case of media companies where you’ll be sending out a lot of push messages, the free Telegram bulk messages are more cost-efficient than, for example, the WhatsApp push notifications. 

HolidayPirates UK: Vacation deals bot

Another interesting use of a Telegram bot in combination with marketing messages is the HolidayPirates’ deal newsletter. If you’re interested in receiving regular updates about travel discounts, you can just subscribe to these alerts. 

In a first step, the bot asks you if you want to join the channel, and after your explicit consent, you get regular deals sent to your Telegram.

Can you use a Telegram chatbot for your business?

If you’re considering using a Telegram bot for your business, it’s certainly possible to work with  the BotFather or other bot building tools, and of course the API. However, this still requires you to have a good grasp on how to develop a bot, and there can be also concerns over security and data privacy. 

Because Telegram doesn’t offer a designated business version of its app like WhatsApp, we don’t recommend just using the regular app. Unless you have IT and legal departments for support, you might run into technical and legal issues. Plus, without IT expertise, you won’t be able to easily integrate payment solutions or your CRM systems that you probably want in combination with the bot. 

For a scalable business solution that doesn’t require a lot of resources, we therefore suggest using professional messaging platforms that offer specific Telegram features for companies. With Sinch, for example, you get access to a professional business software that gives you easy and secure access to the most important messaging apps, including Telegram. 

Reach out to our experts to find out more about using Telegram and Telegram bots for your business.

The post What’s a chatbot for Telegram, and how can you create one? appeared first on Sinch.

You’ve set up a few WhatsApp broadcasts and automated messages. Maybe you’ve even started replying to customer questions through the messaging app. But so far? The results feel… underwhelming.

The problem isn’t the messaging app. It’s your WhatsApp marketing strategy and how it integrates with the customer experience.

We’ve put together five tactical strategies that will immediately boost your WhatsApp marketing campaign results (without any vague “engagement hacks” or broad platitudes). Let’s break them down.

1. Personalize with purpose and performance in mind

When personalizing WhatsApp marketing campaigns, prioritize relevance over generic promotional messages. Adding {{first_name}} is basic – and not real personalization.

If you really want to increase your campaign’s return on investment (ROI), align your personalization strategy with user behavior, timing, and product interest. Let’s dive a little deeper.

Purchase behavior: Marketing messages like “Time to restock your vitamin D” resonate more than generic promos. Why? Because they speak to specific customer needs. Instead of sending the same messages to everyone, you can drive more sales by reaching the right people with the right product at the right time.

For example, AlphaPet Ventures, a German e-commerce store that sells pet products, began sending personalized restocking notifications to customers through their WhatsApp Business account. They started seeing immediate results:

Shopping activity: When customers browse but don’t buy, they leave behind valuable behavioral clues. Use shopping activity information, like viewing or adding items to a cart, to create targeted messages that feel personally relevant.

Concrete references like “Still thinking about the black leather backpack?” boost click-through rates because they reflect specific customer interest. By speaking directly to specific customers, you can encourage them to return to their cart and complete their purchase.

Lifecycle stage: Adapt your tone depending on who you’re talking to – VIP contacts, new subscribers who just opted in, or customers showing signs of disengagement. People in each stage have different expectations, motivations, and needs, so your marketing efforts should reflect that. This personalized approach helps your message feel more relevant to where the customer is in their journey.

Dr. SAM, an online vet platform where pet owners go for advice, operates on a subscription model. They experienced typical monthly churn until they tested personalized WhatsApp messages targeting customers who were showing signs of disengagement.

The result? 50% less churn after just 100 days.

As these examples show, the details really matter when it comes to personalization. Here are some personalization metrics to focus on for your campaigns:

• Click-through rates of personalized vs. non-personalized WhatsApp messages: Personalized messages should spur significantly more engagement than generic ones.
• Conversion rates: Your personalization efforts should result in more people taking desired actions, like making an actual purchase, signing up for a rewards program, or opting into a membership.
• Churn rates: These help you assess whether personalized communication is improving customer retention and reducing drop-off.

2. Use rich media thoughtfully to grab attention and drive action

WhatsApp is a visual, fast, mobile-first marketing channel that revolves around rich media. If you’re still sending text-only WhatsApp campaigns, you’re missing out on massive performance gains.

Here are some types of multimedia you can use to maximize the benefits of WhatsApp marketing:

• Product images: This is perfect for promoting a new product launch or showcasing specific items customers have viewed or purchased in the past.
• Short videos (under 30 seconds): Demonstrate product benefits or behind-the-scenes content with clear calls-to-action.
• Voice notes: Offer personalized explanations that feel more authentic than typed responses.
• Emojis (used sparingly): Add personality without overwhelming the message.
• GIFs: Include dynamic product demonstrations or highlight seasonal campaigns.
• Built-in rich features: Use elements like location pins for events or store visits, multi-product catalogs, image carousels, QR codes for easy opt-in, and interactive buttons.

Including rich media truly makes a substantial difference. For example, Australian marketplace, Yarn, saw their click-through rate jump from 4% with text-only SMS to 11% when they added images through MMS. That’s a 175% increase by including just one visual element.

During their NAIDOC Week campaign, Yarn sent 175,000+ messages combining text and rich media. Their campaign saw a 100% delivery rate, a 4% CTR for text-only SMS, an 11% CTR for image-based MMS, and a 2.5-3x ROI.

This performance boost came from strategic use of product images – like featured items from their online marketplace – that directly reflected customers’ recent browsing activity. The visuals made it instantly clear which product was being offered and why it was relevant. And that’s just from switching from a text-only message to adding a visual. Think what rich WhatsApp messages could do for your campaigns.

Here are some rich media metrics to focus on for your WhatsApp marketing strategy:

• Click-through rates by media type (text vs. image vs. video): These highlight which formats generate the most interest and interaction.
• Engagement duration on various media types: This shows how long people stay with each format, helping you gauge content appeal and depth of attention.
• Conversion rates for different multimedia approaches: These reveal which media types are most successful at driving users to complete a desired action.

Align your media format with the message you’re trying to convey. New product announcements tend to pair naturally with images, tutorials land better as short videos, and personal customer support check-ins feel more human with voice notes or WhatsApp chat interactions.

3. Optimize timing and frequency

WhatsApp delivers 98% open rates and click-through rates of up to 50% – when your notifications are timely and relevant to your audience.

Consider these factors to optimize timing and frequency for your WhatsApp marketing strategy:

• Send times: Test early morning (commute browsing), lunch breaks, or post-work hours (shopping mindset). Consider your target audience’s daily routine and when they’re most likely to engage with your marketing channel. Early risers hitting the gym check messages at 5 AM, office workers scroll during their commute, and parents browse after bedtime routines.
• Day of the week: Generic advice like “avoid the weekend” doesn’t apply to all messaging platforms or audiences. B2B audiences might respond better on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but retail customers may engage more on the weekend, when they have time to browse and make purchases.
• Cadence: Start with once per week and adjust based on response data and engagement rates. Daily messaging works for flash sales, order confirmations, or highly-engaged subscriber lists. Small businesses and larger enterprises tend to have different expectations – B2B may favor less frequent communication, while B2C customers are usually more receptive to regular updates and promotional messages.

Here are some metrics to focus on to measure engagement:

• Read rates: Declining read rates can suggest that your timing is off or that you’re overwhelming recipients with too many notifications.
• Opt-out rates (if your WhatsApp platform provides this data): High opt-out rates may indicate fatigue or that your messages aren’t adding value at the right moment.
• Click-through rates by send time: Analyzing CTR by timing and audience type (like B2B vs. B2C, age group, or region) helps you pinpoint when different segments are most receptive to your marketing efforts.
• Response time patterns: Tracking when people tend to respond can reveal peak engagement windows for scheduling future sends and optimizing your WhatsApp marketing campaign.

A/B testing send times represents one of the simplest optimization opportunities available using marketing tools. Start with three time slots: morning (7 to 9 AM), midday (12 to 2 PM), and evening (6 to 8 PM).

Send identical messages to similar audience segments at each time and measure response rates. The winning time slot becomes your baseline for future testing.

4. Integrate WhatsApp campaigns into your full funnel

WhatsApp works best when you thoughtfully integrate it with your broader marketing mix and other communication channels. Layer it across existing touchpoints – like email marketing, SMS, or in-app – to create a more cohesive customer journey.

How to integrate WhatsApp marketing into your funnel:

• Retarget cart abandoners from your e-commerce site by sending WhatsApp messages that encourage them to complete their purchase.
• Follow up email opens with WhatsApp nudges for subscribers who opened your email but didn’t click through. Test messages two to four hours after email engagement.
• Route qualified leads from WhatsApp to a sales chat. This is a great way to answer detailed questions or respond to pricing requests, as they create a smooth transition to a more personalized exchange.
• Add WhatsApp click-to-chat links to high-performing social media posts to move engaged followers into direct conversations. Try placing them in Instagram Stories and Facebook post comments, where engagement is already happening, and treat these as WhatsApp ads that drive traffic to your business profile.

Here are some metrics to focus on:

• Conversion rates by channel sequence: Compare single-channel campaigns against multi-channel sequences that include WhatsApp.
• Response time differences: Measure how quickly prospects engage when you add WhatsApp to your follow-up sequence.
• Channel attribution: Track which touchpoint combination produces the highest conversion and customer satisfaction rates.
• Abandonment recovery rates: Specifically measure abandoned cart recovery when WhatsApp is used versus email marketing or SMS follow-ups.

Start with one integration point, measure the results for 30 days, then add touchpoints based on what’s working with your WhatsApp account.

5. Don’t DIY your WhatsApp stack

If you’re serious about performance and want to maximize the benefits of WhatsApp marketing, the free WhatsApp Business app won’t cut it.

You’ll hit limits quickly: A 256 contact maximum for bulk messages, no automation or bot functionality, no analytics to track engagement rates, and no integration capabilities with other marketing tools.

It’s built for solo operations, not for marketers who want to run campaigns, track results, and scale quickly.

Conversations 11 min

Thinking about using the WhatsApp Business App? Here’s a better solution!

Learn more

And those shady “modded” tools like GB WhatsApp? They’re a compliance and security nightmare. Think banned accounts, data leaks, and no recourse when things go wrong.

Here’s what to look for in a professional WhatsApp marketing platform:

• Official verification: Choose a WhatsApp Business Solution Provider that ensures verified access to the WhatsApp Business API (WhatsApp’s full-suite business platform).
• Security protocols: Check for data protection standards, especially when handling customer information and rich media.
• Technical support: Look for access to human support when technical issues arise during campaigns.
• Detailed analytics: Seek out features like campaign performance tracking, conversion measurement, and ROI analysis.
• Automation capabilities: Message sequences, trigger-based responses, and workflow management streamline your processes.
• Integration options: Check for easy connections with your existing CRM, email platform, and e-commerce tools.
• Personalization features: Choose a tool with dynamic content insertion, audience segmentation, and behavioral targeting.

With Sinch Engage, you don’t need a development team or a six-month onboarding plan. It’s an out-of-the-box solution that gives you everything you need to run compliant, performance-driven, WhatsApp marketing campaigns from day one.

Launch your first automated, personalized, two-way campaign in minutes and manage WhatsApp, SMS, and RCS all in one place – ideal for testing, scaling, and reaching customers on their preferred platforms.

And when you’re ready to scale? Engage grows with you.

The post Five WhatsApp marketing strategies that’ll immediately boost your ROI appeared first on Sinch.

RCS has been around for a while (since 2006, actually), but it’s now hitting its stride. With support from Android, carriers worldwide, and even Apple support in some markets, RCS is living up to its promise: making messaging smarter, more secure, and way more interactive.

So, what does that mean for your business? Better engagement and sales, more trust, and conversations that actually drive action – all in your customers’ native messaging inboxes.

What is an RCS message?

RCS, or Rich Communication Services, is a messaging protocol developed by the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) as the evolution of SMS. An RCS message supports rich chat features like high-res images and videos, rich cards, suggested replies, branded sender information, and real-time indicators like “typing…” and “read.” Best of all, RCS messaging delivers these interactive experiences directly to a user’s native mobile messaging inbox on Android and Apple devices, meaning there’s no third-party app required.

For users, RCS means better conversations. For businesses, RCS means you can deliver sleek, branded, app-like experiences straight to your customers’ native text inboxes. Think order confirmations with maps, product carousels, or even full two-way conversations with customer support. And because businesses can struggle with getting users to download and regularly use their mobile apps, RCS can help reduce that friction by bringing app-like functionality directly into the messaging experience.

In 2025, RCS has over one and a half billion monthly active users, and its reach is still growing, thanks to expanding support by Apple and mobile operators.

_{RCS is a type of mobile messaging, but it’s more interactive, engaging, and secure than SMS. Watch the full video for everything you need to know about this “next generation” of text messaging.}

Sinch’s Robert Gerstmann said that one of the potential powers of RCS is that it can replace apps altogether. While that may sound radical, it’s possible. Many of the most common uses of apps (checking balances, placing orders) could be handled with rich messaging. Plus, the process for a company to get verified to use RCS builds consumer trust, making them more likely to engage on that channel.

Is RCS chat only for Android phones? Does Apple have RCS messaging?

For years, RCS was largely an Android thing, supported by Google and carriers around the world, but conspicuously absent from iPhones. That finally changed in September 2024, when Apple rolled out RCS support in iOS 18 for person-to-person (P2P) messaging, starting in select markets with carriers like AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

While Apple was initially slow to support RCS, they eventually acknowledged its benefits for cross-platform communication.

Sinch’s Robert Gerstmann shared how the impact of Apple’s support is already becoming clear.

“If the adoption speed of iOS 18 matches that of previous iOS versions, this would translate to over one billion additional RCS users by summer 2025 thanks to Apple coming onboard.”

Robert Gerstmann Chief Evangelist and Co-Founder at Sinch

And in iOS 18.1, Apple began expanding support for the application-to-person (A2P) version of RCS, known as RCS for Business (formerly “RBM”) in select markets with certain operators. As more carriers adopt RCS messaging, its growth is expected to accelerate even more. That’s good news for businesses looking to reach customers with messaging that’s more interactive, trusted, and effective – no matter what phone they use.

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Types of RCS for Business messages and how to use them

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Where is RCS messaging used?

RCS has full coverage in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, the U.K., Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and India. Other countries offer full support via Google’s RCS services or partial support, with a selection of local mobile operators providing RCS.

When it comes to RCS for Business, coverage depends on a mix of mobile carrier support and regional rollout, especially as Apple gradually expands availability.

Here’s the kicker: Android accounts for over 70% of the global smartphone market. So even if you’re waiting for full iPhone support in your region, there’s already a massive audience you can reach today with rich, branded messaging that goes far beyond what SMS can do.

RCS vs. SMS, MMS, and OTT messaging apps

To understand the differences between an RCS message and text messaging, it might be helpful to first understand the differences between MMS and SMS.

While SMS is simple and reliable, it’s limited to 160 characters per message. MMS messages add the ability to send multimedia attachments, but RCS offers a much more interactive user experience. And that’s because RCS messages work with other elements of a smartphone, like a web browser or maps, to create way more engaging conversations.

Is RCS going to replace traditional SMS? Not exactly. RCS runs on a mobile data connection or Wi-Fi, meaning SMS will still kick in when there’s no internet – just like iMessage will fall back to SMS when needed.

And unlike over-the-top (OTT) apps like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, RCS doesn’t require users to download anything or create a new account. RCS works within the native messaging app that’s built into different devices.

Here’s a quick chart for you to reference that compares SMS/MMS and RCS for a few common factors.

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The RCS ecosystem: How RCS messages are sent and delivered

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Exciting RCS features that set it apart

What does RCS do better than SMS? Well, just about everything! Where SMS is limited to plain text and links, RCS offers features like:

• Better security: RCS messages encrypted in transit, and in some cases, like RCS chats in Google Messages, they’re protected with end-to-end encryption.
• Higher text limits: SMS messages are limited to 160 characters, while text portions of RCS messages are limited to 3072 characters.
• High-resolution images and videos: Grab attention with gorgeous high-resolution photos and videos, GIFs, carousels, and other dynamic features right in the native messaging app.
• Larger file sizes: Send images and videos up to 100MB (though Google recommends images up to 2 MB and videos up to 10 MB for the best experience).
• Message reactions and typing indicators: Just like in modern messaging apps, RCS supports reactions (like thumps up or hearts) and shows when someone is typing. These features are available on both Android and iOS, and for cross-device messaging.
• Read receipts: If the recipient has their read receipts enabled, you’ll see the word “Read” along with the time they read your RCS message.
• Cross-app connectivity: Send messages that open in browsers, maps, and other applications.
• Easy, one-tap replies: RCS for Business messages make it easy to reply to messages with one tap with suggested replies.
• Group chats: Connect securely in group messages with friends, family, and team members without requiring another chat app.
• Google Wallet integration: Provides a quicker and easier way to access everyday essentials.

How to enable RCS on your iPhone

If you have iOS 18 and your carrier supports RCS on iPhone, you can enable it in your iPhone’s Message settings.

Once it’s on, you’ll get a more modern experience when messaging Android users – including features like read receipts and typing indicators. When you’re sending an RCS message from your Apple device, you’ll see the words “Text Message • RCS” in the message field, confirming it’s active.

How to turn on RCS chat in Android

All new Android devices come with RCS chat built in. Here’s how you turn it on in Google Messages:

• Open Google Messages on your device
• Tap your profile picture in the top right, then select Message settings
• Tap RCS chats
• Turn RCS chats on

Note that you may need to verify your phone number before RCS is enabled.

Why RCS for Business is a game-changer for your company

RCS lets you build more engaging content and provide a better customer experience for those with RCS-enabled devices. Time and time again, RCS for Business has been proven to lead to higher cart values, more conversions, and higher engagement than any other type of mobile messaging.

“One of the cool things about RCS is that you can do so much with it. A lot of businesses start with fairly simple messages, by converting their existing SMS over. That works well for improving security with the sender verifications, the branding, and the delivery receipts. And once you start seeing it working, you start to move on to more advanced use cases.”

Miriam Liszewski RCS Commercial Product Manager at Sinch

Once you’re verified and live, here’s what businesses love most about using RCS:

• Verified brand identity: In our 2025 State of customer communications survey, 79% of consumer respondents said logos and verification checkmarks make messages feel more trustworthy. RCS messages display your business name, logo, and verified status so customers always know exactly who they’re talking to. That built-in trust makes it ideal for sensitive messages like one-time passwords, which can be sent as RCS OTPs.
• No extra downloads: All new Android devices have built-in RCS, so messages from verified businesses can go to the native messaging inbox instead of needing a separate app.
• Rich, interactive features: From image carousels and videos to reply buttons and suggested actions, you can keep users engaged – and guide them toward the next step – without sending them elsewhere. Our 2025 research shows that 40% of business leaders believe RCS will increase customer engagement through these interactive features.
• Smarter analytics: Handset delivery receipts, open rates, and read rates give you more in-depth information about the status of messages. This makes A/B testing and campaign optimization easier – and more effective.
• Reliable fallbacks: If someone doesn’t have RCS (or a mobile data plan to support it),your message can still be delivered as SMS, MMS, or apps like WhatsApp if you send via a tool like Conversation API. In short, your messages will always get to your customers, one way or another.

_{Ready to capture your audience’s attention? Listen as Miriam Liszewski, Sinch’s RCS Commercial Product Manager, gives six quick ideas for what businesses can do with RCS messaging.}

How RCS messaging can grow your business

Like most other kinds of marketing and support, the ability to grow your business using RCS is only limited by your imagination and your budget.

It’s good to remember just how powerful these messages can be — do you know any other form of outreach that’s as big a part of your customers’ daily routine as their text inbox? Neither do we.

Promotions and specials

Provide up-to-the-minute information on sales and promotions tailored to a customer’s tastes. With the added functionality of RCS, you can send them to your website, or give them directions to your location. You can even have them choose what they want and order it right from your message!

Here’s a real-life example: Macif, an insurance company with over five million policy holders in France, used RCS to have two-way conversations.

Macif’s campaign re-engaged contacts and increased campaign click-through-rate by 100%!

Real-time updates

RCS allows your customers to engage with a conversational service (including live support or AI chatbots), for instance, to schedule or change appointments. You can also provide directions, sports scores, and shipping updates as they happen.

Smarter account alerts

RCS takes traditional account alerts to the next level with verified sender information, branding, and more. Think branded fraud alerts, payment confirmations, or service reminders that land in your customers’ native text message inboxes.

Case in point: EasyPark Group, the world leader in digital parking, uses RCS texts to send real-time parking alerts, complete with their logo and a verified check mark. If a user’s device doesn’t support RCS, it falls back to SMS automatically.

Personalized recommendations

Personalization is one of the most important parts of any communication or marketing strategy. In fact, in our 2025 State of customer communications consumer survey, 80% of consumers said they value personalized recommendations. And RCS makes personalized messaging feel like a conversation, especially when product suggestions are tailored to past purchases, preferences, or behavior.

Here’s another real-world RCS messaging example at work: Picard used an RCS campaign to lift sales and win customer loyalty. They created a conversational RCS experience that helped their customers imagine their holiday menus, taking into account dietary preferences, budget considerations, and even their desire to cook.

_{Watch the video to learn how Picard use RCS to personalize their customers’ shopping experiences.}

Their campaign achieved great results, with a 42% increase in customer engagement and 10% more clicks to the website than Rich SMS.

4 tips to build a great RCS strategy

A good RCS strategy is similar to SMS, push notification, and other mobile strategies. But it’s also different because it combines a lot of the features found in other channels into one.

Know what problems you’re solving or what you’re trying to communicate

Don’t send RCS messages without a specific purpose. Whether you’re giving access to a sale or sending an account alert, you need to make every message actionable. Luckily, the advanced features of RCS let you create powerful CTAs. Segmenting messages by type is a good place to start:

• Informational messages: These can be fraud alerts, account balances, 2FA messages, or any other communication that provides information customers have asked for or need to be aware of.
• Marketing or transactional messages: With these messages, you can invite customers to a sale, follow up on an abandoned cart, or help them with a purchase or return.

Take cues from successful past campaigns and add new features and interactivity

If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. But there’s nothing that says you can’t (or shouldn’t) make your relevant, useful messages look and work better. That’s a good way to think of an RCS campaign — a souped-up version of an SMS or email campaign that takes full advantage of new, rich features.

Make use of the customer data you have

Combine CRM data, chat and order histories, and the results of customer surveys to build profiles that paint a fuller picture of who your customers are. From there, your team can devise and implement RCS marketing and support strategies.

Add RCS into your omnichannel mix

It’s clear that RCS can be a powerful tool for building trust and boosting engagement. But remember, even with both Android and iPhone users having RCS, the real magic will happen when you use RCS as part of a bigger, well-orchestrated omnichannel strategy.

The key? Consistency. Many mobile messaging channels support branded sender features, so make sure your tone, visuals, and messaging align across platforms to reinforce who you are.

RCS isn’t here to replace your other channels, but to amplify them. Use it where it makes sense, and let it do what it does best.

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Master your RCS branded messages strategy

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What’s next for RCS? Apple, Google, and GSMA point to a pivotal year ahead

RCS is set to take a major leap forward in 2025. Apple has confirmed that end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging will be available in a future iOS update – potentially as soon as iOS 19 is released, which is expected in September 2025. According to Tom Van Pelt, the Technical Director at GSMA, this would make RCS the “first large-scale messaging service to support interoperable E2EE between client implementations from different providers.”

And at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025, Google’s Josh Pepper doubled down on spam protection, saying the RCS team is tapping into the same learnings that have powered Gmail’s spam protections to keep RCS chats clean and secure. Already, 9to5Google has reported an “Unsubscribe” feature is being added to RCS in the Google Messages app.

“One phrase I use with my team is: ‘Reach is life, spam is death.” It succinctly sums up what we need in a messaging solution because you need to reach everybody, and you can’t miss them.”

Josh Pepper Head of Product for RCS for Business at Google

Meanwhile, RCS adoption continues to rise across both consumers and enterprises. Our 2025 research found that 42% of business leaders said RCS was a strategic investment for 2025. At Sinch, that growth is already tangible – by mid-November 2024, we had already delivered over one billion RCS for Business messages – and that was before Black Friday and the holiday season had hit.

Getting started with RCS messaging

What’s the best way to start out strong with this exciting new channel?

1. Research how others in your field are using RCS. If your competitors aren’t using the channel, take the plunge and get in on the ground floor of what’s almost guaranteed to become one of the most powerful tools in the upcoming years.
2. Find and register your RCS Agent. An RCS Agent is your official business identity within the RCS ecosystem. Sinch makes it easy to get started with this in Conversation API, which you can also use to also add other channels and scale as needed.
3. Build a strategy. Use your data and previous messaging use cases to build better support, marketing, and sales processes. Sinch makes it easy to automate customer care and conversations for improved efficiency and better CX.
4. A/B test your strategies. Once you’ve implemented new strategies, test them out. Start with a small group to iron out any major headaches and then expand out. Capture as much data as you can to inform future decisions.
5. Roll them out and refine them. Keep improving your strategies as you gain more experience and let customers tell you directly what they’d like to see in your messages.

As RCS messaging continues to gain ground, you can make great strides with this channel. Download our comprehensive RCS guide which will walk you through how to make the case to bring RCS into your organization.

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How to make a compelling business case for RCS

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And when you’re ready to talk all things conversational messaging and RCS, let’s chat. Our team is ready to help you build a great messaging experience that your customers will love!

The post What is RCS messaging? Google’s communication chat protocol explained appeared first on Sinch.

And no, it’s not another digital wallet or payment tool. It’s Rich Communications Services (RCS), a messaging channel that feels like an app but offers more secure, branded messages right in a customers’ regular text message inbox.

Adoption is happening fast. Financial services organizations are embracing RCS faster than other industries, likely because it offers more than SMS in a highly regulated environment – and because it aligns with customer expectations for trust, clarity, and engagement from their banks.

According to our 2025 State of customer communications survey which includes insights from over 2,800 global consumers and 400+ financial services business leaders, RCS is already reshaping financial customer communications:

• 55% of financial institutions we surveyed described RCS as “game changing”

• Nearly half are already using it

• Another 45% plan to adopt or expand RCS use in the coming months

When we asked why, one thing stood out: security. More than half (54%) of financial institutions pointed to improved security as the top benefit of RCS. And with fraud and impersonation scams on consumers on the rise, that carries serious weight.

Plus, consumers are also pushing for better. Our survey found that global consumers increasingly value speed, trust, and relevance when it comes to messages from their financial institutions.

In this post, we’ll break down what our survey revealed about what consumers want from their financial institutions, and why RCS might be exactly what banks need in 2025.

What makes RCS great for banking and financial services

RCS offers banks and financial institutions a change to evolve how they currently use messaging channels – not by replacing SMS outright, but by solving for what it lacks. Here’s what sets it apart:

• Branded messages: Every RCS for Business message includes a business’s name, logo, and brand colors. That means messages look like your brand from the start.

• Verified sender profiles (RCS Agents): RCS for Business messaging requires brand vetting and verification by a third party, making it nearly impossible for fraudsters to impersonate legitimate brands.

• Native mobile inbox delivery: RCS messages show up in the same messaging inbox as SMS. That means there are no apps for your customers to download, or new interfaces for them to learn.

• Better security: RCS for Business messages are encrypted, unlike SMS. That added layer of security matters for financial institutions sending verification codes or fraud alerts.

^{Miriam Liszewski, Sinch RCS Product Manager, walks through what RCS could look like for a modern bank.}

How banks can use RCS today

Our 2025 State of customer communications report confirmed what many financial services companies have long suspected: People want their financial messages to be clear, timely, and secure.

From fraud alerts to payment reminders, RCS can help banks and financial services companies communicate better across the entire customer journey. Let’s take a look.

Fraud notifications

Bank fraud is unfortunately all too common. A 2024 J.D. Power study found that 45% of bank consumers experienced multiple incidents of fraud in just one year. It’s probably no surprise, then, that consumers expect their bank to respond with quickly and clearly when something’s wrong.

From our 2025 survey:

• Over 90% of consumers say fraud alerts are important.

• 72% want to receive fraud alerts immediately, with another 15% expecting them within five minutes.

• 46% say they would want to resolve an issue over the phone after getting a fraud alert.

Most institutions still rely on SMS for fraud notifications, but RCS makes them much better. Branded sender profiles make sure customers instantly know who the message is from. And thanks to built-in action buttons like the ability to call right from the message, customers can go from getting a fraud alert to resolving it faster than ever.

That same J.D. Power survey found that 92% of banking customers said they’d stick with their bank after a fraud issue was successfully resolved. Speed builds trust – and RCS helps deliver both!

OTPs

SMS is a common channel to send one-time passwords because it works on nearly every mobile phone, anywhere in the world. That kind of reach is hard to beat. But SMS is also vulnerable to smishing attacks, where fraudsters try to trick users into sharing sensitive information by impersonating a business.

And consumers are taking note, making them question valid messages. According to our research, more than half of consumers had received a legitimate message from a brand in the last year that they at first found suspicious.

RCS helps solve for that. Every RCS for Business sender must be verified, so users know exactly who the message is coming from, complete with a logo and a name. This makes it much easier for customers to instantly recognize messages and act on them with confidence.

Account updates

Today’s consumers are looking for providers who can help guide them through their financial journeys. Our research shows 63% of consumers expect at least monthly updates about their financial accounts, and 73% find balance notifications important in their money management.

RCS can make those updates easier by letting you send branded, actionable messages from everything from transaction activity to policy updates. You can also add rich visuals, buttons, and more context in your messages so they feel way more personalized than just a text.

Payment reminders

Late payments are a pain for both consumers and financial institutions. Our data shows that 84% of consumers consider payment due reminders important.

RCS lets you send payment reminders that are harder to miss. With a recognizable sender profile and actionable buttons (like “Pay now” or “Talk to Support”), you can help customers act instantly and avoid frustration later.

Automation of everyday interactions

Not every task needs a human agent on the other end. And for simple things, like booking time with a financial advisor or getting answers to FAQs, most people just want to get things done quickly.

And many institutions are already moving in that direction. Our research found that:

• 60% of financial institutions are already using AI chatbots for automated responses

• 42% of consumers are willing to engage with AI chatbots trained on support documentation

While younger generations lead AI adoption, general concerns among consumers about data privacy remain, and many people still want the option to talk to a human.

When RCS is integrated with an AI chatbot, you can automate straightforward interactions but still offer the option to connect with a human when needed. It’s the kind of service that makes life easier for your customers and reduces pressure on your support teams.

Promotions

We all know consumers in 2025 expect personalization. This is especially true in financial services, where nearly 50% of consumers told us they want personalized communications based on their real financial situation. This means no more “one size fits all” approach.

RCS helps deliver on that expectation and gives you the ability to include rich elements like carousels, images, and more so your promotions are as engaging and relevant as possible.

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RCS benchmarks and success stories every marketer should know

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A real-life example of RCS in banking: WeCredit

WeCredit, a digital lending platform in India, uses RCS to make it easier for customers to discover and apply for paperless loans.

They send their customers:

• Promotional messages and exclusive loan offers

• Nudges to complete applications

• Updates throughout the loan process

Before using RCS, they relied heavily on SMS and WhatsApp. SMS was affordable for their market but limited when it came to interactivity and tracking – meanwhile, WhatsApp supported richer conversations but required subscribers to have a separate app.

“RCS sits in the perfect middle ground between SMS and WhatsApp. It has the visual appeal of WhatsApp with the cost-effectiveness of SMS, plus great tracking and analytics.”

Laksh Dua Co-founder of WeCredit

Now, with 35-40% of their customers using RCS-enabled devices, WeCredit can reach a large chunk of their audience in a way that’s visually rich and easy to interact with. And because RCS doesn’t yet cover their entire base, they use RCS where possible and WhatsApp and SMS as fallbacks. This way, no customer misses important updates.

Is it time to rethink your customer communications?

SMS will remain a critical channel for banks because of its universal availability. But it just wasn’t built for the fraud risks, privacy concerns, or customer expectations of 2025. Trying to stretch it to fit those needs can only go so far.

RCS gives you a powerful way to make your customer communications so much better, from fraud alerts, to OTPs, and account updates. And it does it in a way that’s familiar for customers, but in a way that’s far more powerful than plain text.

So, now’s the time to ask yourself:

• Are your current channels giving customers the confidence and clarity they need?

• Could richer, branded messaging reduce fraud risk and improve resolution speed at your organization?

• What would it mean for your customers (and your teams!) to solve those gaps this year?

Because here’s the thing: Your customers already expect this level of clarity. RCS can help you deliver it. It’s time to raise the bar on what great financial communications can look like.

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Ready to bring branded messaging to your financial institution? Reach out to our team and start the conversation.

The post RCS in banking: The next step in digital customer experience appeared first on Sinch.

Sinch surveyed consumers around the world as well as business leaders from healthcare, technology, retail, and financial services as part of an ambitious research project that’s launching soon.

Here are some of the key takeaways from Sinch’s new report The state of customer communications.

Top findings from The state of customer communications

• 44% of business respondents call security and privacy a customer communication challenge. These issues also emerged as areas of concern when integrating comms into customer-facing applications and when using AI in communications.
• 46% of businesses plan to improve the way customer communications integrate with their tech stack (CRMs, ERPs, support platforms, etc.). Similarly, 45% say communication channels are not yet fully integrated with tech systems.
• 87% of business respondents are familiar with RCS (Rich Communication Services), and 59% believe RCS will be game-changing for customer communications in their industries. 
• 97% of business respondents are using or plan to use AI in customer communications. 63% expect to adopt AI voice bots and 46% say they’ll add AI-powered chatbots in 2025.
• More than 40% of consumers are frustrated with communications that are too frequent or excessive. This applies to both marketing/promotional messages as well as informational customer updates.
• 35% of consumers think email is the channel least likely to be used for phishing. But email is a very popular threat vector among bad actors. This indicates the importance of user verification messages to help protect account access beyond a username and password.
• A combined 80% of consumers have a negative reaction when asked to repeat information during customer support conversations. This points to the need for connected communications to keep people happy.

The foundations of customer communication

At Sinch, we believe in the idea that strong customer communications are built on four foundational pillars. A cohesive communication strategy should keep people engaged, informed, safe, and happy. These pillars apply to every type of industry, individual businesses, and the overall customer experience.

Here’s how the four pillars of customer communications work:

1. Engaging messages, such as campaigns from the marketing department, are personalized promotional communications designed to connect people with your company’s products, services, and ideas. 
2. Informative messages, which can support operations, logistics, and billing, are the customer updates that keep people in-the-know while ensuring your business runs smoothly. 
3. Safe messages, which help IT and cybersecurity teams protect customers, are the communication strategies built to verify user identities and restrict account access while establishing trust. 
4. Happy messages represent the customer service and support conversations that lead to satisfaction and loyalty. It also includes other communication strategies to retain customers and keep them happy. 

Of course, there can also be overlap in all four of these areas. That’s just one reason why staying on top of customer communications quickly gets complicated.

Top customer communication challenges

We surveyed more than 1,600 business leaders from healthcare, technology, retail, and financial services (FinServ) to find out about their customer communication strategies. That includes the challenges businesses face in 2025 and beyond.

Across the four industries we surveyed, when asked to select all options that applied, these are seen as the three biggest challenges:

While cost and security are concerns in many aspects of a business, integration is somewhat unique to customer communication challenges. 

Our research found that 55% of businesses we questioned claim that customer communications are fully integrated with their tech stack. However, that leaves 45% whose communications are only partially or minimally integrated with other systems. That technology includes everything from CRMs and ERPs to core banking systems (CBS) in financial services and electronic medical record (EMR) systems in healthcare.

When you have a partner that provides easy-to-implement messaging APIs or a collection of reliable integrations with leading technology platforms, connecting customer communications becomes much easier.

Beyond those top three challenges, it’s clear that organizations face a wide variety of customer communication concerns. Every challenge presented in our survey was chosen more than 25% of the time. That means one out of every four businesses faces at least one of these challenges.

Emerging channels: RCS and AI in communications

Sinch also asked business respondents about their plans for communication advancements in 2025. That includes the possibility of adopting new channels to enhance and improve connections with customers.

Two emerging channels of particular interest are Rich Communications Services (RCS) and the use of artificial intelligence, including chatbots and voice bots.

RCS: Changing the messaging game for good

RCS is poised to revolutionize customer communications by delivering a trustworthy, app-like experience to the native messaging application on recipients’ smartphones. More than 80% of all industry survey respondents were at least somewhat familiar with RCS. If it’s new to you, be sure to check out Sinch’s RCS Hub to get answers and see how it works for yourself.

Among those familiar with RCS, many believe it’s a pretty big deal. Sinch’s survey found 59% of respondents call RCS “game changing” for customer communication in their industries. Another 32% think RCS will be useful even if it isn’t essential. Only 1% aren’t interested in RCS.

Sinch’s full report, The state of customer communications, will explore exactly why many business leaders believe they’ll benefit from RCS for Business. To put it simply, RCS messaging is an excellent way to keep customers engaged, informed, safe, and happy throughout the customer journey.

“One of the cool things about RCS is that you can do so much with it. A lot of businesses start with fairly simple messages, by converting their existing SMS over. That works well for improving security with the sender verifications, the branding, and the delivery receipts. And once you start seeing it working, you start to move on to more advanced use cases.”

Miriam Liszewski RCS Commercial Product Manager, Sinch

AI: Implementing intelligent customer communication

Wherever you look, there’s tremendous momentum and excitement around the potential for AI to change the way we live, work, and communicate.

Sinch’s research found that 97% of all industry respondents we surveyed are already using or plan to use AI in communication. Plus, AI solutions are among the top channels in which businesses plan to invest over the next year. 63% plan to adopt AI voice assistants while 46% will introduce AI-powered chatbots into the mix.

It’s also clear that many business leaders understand the need to move forward carefully and strategically with AI-powered solutions.

These are their three biggest concerns with using AI in communications:

Businesses of all types and sizes stand to benefit from taking advantage of AI in customer communication. Yet it’s wise to keep in mind that consumers may have their own reservations. 

The full version of The state of customer communications takes a deeper dive into how AI is being used and how consumers feel about using it. (Hint: Younger generations are much more comfortable interacting with artificial intelligence.)

Engaging customer communications

Speaking of consumers, let’s check out some key takeaways from Sinch’s research around their preferences and pain points. We surveyed 2,800 people of all ages from across the globe to uncover their expectations and frustrations around the four pillars of customer communication. 

Beginning with the engaged pillar, here’s what consumers say can go wrong with marketing communications…

Our survey found these are the top three frustrations when receiving promotions from a brand:

It should come as no surprise that most consumers get annoyed with all the noise that promotions produce in their inboxes. 

Unfortunately, too many brands continue to deliver unwanted and irrelevant campaigns while others keep sending until they’re marked as spam. In the full report, we take a look at what consumers are more likely to find engaging. That includes the ways they expect brands to personalize marketing messages.

“Ultimately, what you want to do is make sure you deliver a very personalized experience to your customers, and you’re able to convert that demand on whatever digital communication channels you’re using. Retailers, for example, should consider developing personalized experiences with RCS. I think what’s most impactful is we’re seeing that increases in conversion rates with RCS for Business are huge.”

Jonathan Bean CMO, Sinch

Informative customer communications

Customer updates are important. People anticipate them. The messages contain relevant information. And unlike marketing communications, they’re meant for individuals – not mass messaging – which makes them personal.

However, it’s possible to over inform or under inform your customer base. When we asked consumers to tell us what frustrates them about this kind of communication, these were the top three pain points:

If a customer is inundated with repetitive notifications, these messages cross the line between helpful and annoying. Likewise, when updates fail to arrive on time, lack real-time info, or offer no way to follow up with questions – they’re not really keeping people informed as they should.

The bottom line is that automated customer updates are easy to take for granted, but they are a crucial part of the customer experience that deserves careful attention. Striking the right balance not only keeps customers informed, but it can keep them engaged, safe, and happy as well.

Keeping customer safe

The digital world can be a dangerous place. What is your business doing to protect your customers from bad actors who are trying to trick them with phishing messages?

The truth is that many consumers may be a little too trusting of the messages that arrive in their email and text messaging inboxes. When we asked consumers to choose the channel they believe is least likely to be used for phishing, email (35%) was the most popular answer.

The reality? Email is a very popular threat vector for bad actors looking to steal consumers’ identities. In-app messages (chosen by 27%) may certainly be more trustworthy, but those are only available once a user is logged in to the application.

One-time passwords (OTPs) and various forms of multifactor authentication (MFA) are an important line of defense against malicious messages. They include SMS and emails as well as flash calls that help verify the identity of a user before allowing account access. 

While these account protection measures do require additional steps, Sinch’s research found most consumers say OTPs and MFA make them feel safer and are necessary. With a verification API, you can deliver messages that keep people safe on whatever channels your customers prefer.

Keeping customer happy

Messages that are engaging, informative, and trustworthy can all lead to happier customers. But an irreplaceable part of the customer experience occurs when people need support.

Interactions that consumers have with customer service and support can make or break their opinion of your company. 

When trying to resolve a problem, consumers often find themselves switching communication channels or being transferred between agents. This can lead to plenty of waiting and repeating, which tries your customers’ patience.

Sinch’s research found that 42% of consumers find this experience frustrating. Another 24% say it wasted their time and 15% lose trust in businesses that can’t keep track of information during support interactions.

Combined, this means 80% of consumers will have a negative reaction. That’s obviously not how you keep customers happy.

Centralized systems to manage support conversations are essential to a streamlined and satisfactory customer experience. That could mean integrating customer communications with existing platforms or using a communication platform as a service (CPaaS) solution.

For example, Sinch’s Contact Pro is an omnichannel support center that allows you to work with customers via SMS, email, mobile messaging, phone calls, and web chats in one place. This allows your team to keep track of customer interactions during the conversation. It also provides interaction histories for individual customers.

Artificial intelligence solutions are already vastly improving efficiency in customer support. Sinch’s full report explores how consumers feel about using AI in a variety of situations.

“Consumers have become more and more demanding. Generative AI in communications enables companies to leverage their insights and information to instantaneously answer customers. I think compared to where we are today, in terms of customer care and customer service use cases, we’re going to start to see AI handle 10 times the volume that it’s already handling today.”

Laurinda Pang CEO, Sinch

Deeper insights on customer communication

Sinch’s complete findings from our research are now available. Check out The state of customer communications to read the full report and keep an eye on our blog, social channels, and your inbox for even more customer communication insights.

In the coming months, we’ll also be releasing industry-based reports and articles as well as other content to help you develop and enhance your organization’s communication strategy.

Want to see how businesses across healthcare, technology, retail, financial services, and other industries are finding success through better customer communication? Check out Sinch’s growing collection of customer stories and find out for yourself.

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