Twilio Announces Global Availability Of RCS Services, Encourages Interactive And Safe Business Interactions

Twilio world-leading customer interaction platform (photo; dock.twilio)

JAKARTA Twilio is the world's leading customer interaction platform, Tuesday 2 Septmber officially announced the global launch of Rich Communication Services (RCS) services for all its customers. This service allows brands from various industries to send feature-rich, verified, and interactive branded messages, replacing the traditional SMS experience in a much more dynamic and secure way.

With the availability of this service, more than 349,000 active Twilio customers worldwide can now take advantage of RCS through Programmable Messaging and Verify API, without the need to make code changes. For new customers, integration is carried out directly through the Twilio platform with the support of other channels such as SMS, MMS, and WhatsApp, ensuring communication remains smooth on various network devices and conditions.

Chief Product Officer and Head of R&D Twilio, Inbal Shani, stated that the global launch of RCS is an important milestone in the evolution of business communication. It is important for businesses to build interactions with customers that are smooth, secure, and trusted. RCS made it happen through a richer message experience and better message delivery guarantees, which in turn will increase customer confidence in brands," Shani said in a release to VOI.

RCS allows businesses to display brand identities more strongly in each message, including through logos, taglines, as well as verification badges developed with Google. These messages can also be equipped with interactive features such as call-to-action buttons, image carousels, location sharing, as well as media content that improves user experience. The automatic fallback system to SMS is also implemented if the recipient device does not support RCS, ensuring reliability of delivery without additional intervention.

This service is designed to address the main challenges in today's business communication world, particularly related to consumer confidence in digital messages. Based on the Twilio's 2025 State of Customer Engagement report, only 15% of consumers fully entrust their personal data to brands, while 88% state they are more likely to make purchases from brands that interact personally and in real-time. However, only 44% of companies are able to make this happen.

With RCS, this gap can be bridged through clear verification and branding, as well as high interactivity. RCS is ideally used for various purposes such as order confirmation, delivery status, marketing campaign, to customer service that requires a quick response all done in one smooth and safe communication channel.

The implementation of RCS has had a significant impact in various parts of the world. The fintech company Nova Gestoes in South America recorded a four-fold increase in customer response after switching from SMS to RCS.

The most important thing is that branded verification is able to convince customers that they communicate directly with Nova Gyestes. In the financial recovery business, trust is everything," said Nova Gesties' CTO, Juliano Skrzyszowski.

Meanwhile, in Europe, Fresha a salon and spa ordering platform said that their customers are more active in responding to messages sent via the RCS Twilio channel. This trust leads to stronger relationships and better business results," said Jeremy Miller, Fresha's Head of Product.

The expansion of RCS adoption is also supported by global momentum, especially after Apple announced support for RCS through iOS 18.2 in December 2024. This opens up access to RCS for iPhone users, making it a new cross-platform communication standard. Twilio itself has now activated RCS services in more than 20 countries through more than 55 cellular operators.

Google as Twilio's strategic partner in the development of RCS welcomes this launch. We observed the emergence of a new paradigm when the most valuable property in a smartphone is no longer the front page, but the inbox," said Steve Brough, Global GTM Head, RCS for Business on Google. Our partnership with Twilio allows businesses to provide messages that begin to blur the boundaries between short message capabilities and applications.

Industry experts also rate RCS as a fundamental change in business communication. Adam Holtby, Omdia's Principal Analysis, stated, RCS not only enriches communication, but also makes it a transaction channel that can handle payments, authentication, and other services directly within messaging apps. Settings without code change and fallback to SMS are important solutions to accelerate the adoption of this technology in any company.

In Southeast Asia, Singtel sees RCS as the answer to consumer demands that want a more immersive experience. A partnership with Twilio allows companies in Singapore to send rich messages and interactive communication, said Terence Lai, VP Digitalization Singtel.

With this launch, Twilio reinforces its position as a global leader in customer engagement. Its flexible and programmed platform has been used by millions of developers and hundreds of thousands of business organizations in more than 180 countries, reshaping the way companies interact with customers in the digital era.