RCS is supported on all major carriers in the United States, including T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon.
To begin using RCS, your brand must be registered and an "RCS Agent" must be created. This process is managed by your CPaaS vendor (e.g., NetCore, Twilio).
- Contact your CPaaS vendor: You must work with your vendor's dedicated onboarding team to handle brand registration and agent creation.
- Onboarding timeframe: Please be aware that this onboarding process can be slow. This process can take approximately 2 to 4 weeks to complete.
- MoEngage setup: Once your CPaaS vendor has successfully created and registered your RCS Agent, the setup within the MoEngage platform is straightforward. For more information, refer to Configure your RCS sender.
- Message delivery
An RCS message can be delivered to a user if all of the following conditions are met:
- The user's device supports RCS.
- The user has enabled RCS messaging in their device settings.
- The user has an active data connection (mobile data or Wi-Fi).
Globally, a new agent is typically limited to sending four initial A2P (Application-to-Person) messages to a single, unique user within a rolling 28-day window.
Note: The traffic limit and reputation logic detailed in this section is not applicable to the United States. The following rules apply to Google's global RBM (RCS Business Messaging) platform but are not enforced in the US.
Under the global RBM rules, if a user does not reply to any of your first four messages within that 28-day period, you cannot send them a fifth promotional message. The intent is to encourage conversations, not just promotional broadcasts.
When a user replies to one of your brand's messages, the traffic limit for that specific user is significantly increased, allowing for a more robust, two-way conversation.
Globally, RBM uses a "penalty" mechanism based on user feedback, especially spam reports. An agent's reputation is categorized as High, Medium, or Low.
Unless specified otherwise, RCS volumes are billed as a part of the "Connected Channels" SKU. If you use WhatsApp with MoEngage, volumes for the same are also included in this.
If an RCS message was successfully sent but failed to deliver, it will be counted towards your "Connected Channels" volume. The fallback SMS is subject to your contract terms.
Delivery rates for RCS vary considerably depending on which geography you operate in. As of June 2025, reach for India stood at ~50%, SEA at ~40%, MEA at ~20%, and after iOS 18 support for RCS, EU and US at ~60%. You can also check the reach with your RCS service provider.
No, currently the primary RCS as well as the fallback SMS needs to be sent through senders belonging to the same service provider.
Yes, MoEngage supports the collection of click data for suggestions. However, your RCS sender must send this data back to MoEngage for it to be tracked.
RCS supports URLs in Simple Text messages, but not in Rich Cards.
A user's reachability for RCS messages depends on three primary variables:
- Device Support: The user's device needs to inherently support RCS (e.g., some older Android phones and Apple devices in India currently do not).
- Recipient App Settings: The recipient must explicitly enable RCS messages within their messaging application. While some Android phone manufacturers default this setting to 'Yes,' users retain the option to disable it.
- Active Data Connection: Unlike SMS, RCS messages transmit over the data layer; the subscriber must maintain an active data connection at the moment of delivery. Without connectivity, the system cannot reach the user.