The United States is a market primed for operator-sponsored, brand- targeted advanced messaging based on Rich Communications Services (RCS), according to focus group conversations conducted by Synchronoss.
After bringing together dozens of U.S. consumers of all ages to discuss their mobile messaging habits, Synchronoss is able to show the value of RCS to operators and brands to increase subscriber engagement and create new revenue.
Synchronoss asked focus group participants about their current messaging behavior and introduced them to RCS capabilities. The resulting discussions demonstrated a clear demand for operator-sponsored RCS.
For operators, this is good news. While consumers may use multiple messaging applications for different purposes, nearly everyone texts and they text a lot. Consumers trust traditional texting service because they consider it secure and reliable, and they know their personal contacts all have access to texting – which isn’t necessarily the case with messaging apps. In fact, the most commonly used messaging app is the native, pre-loaded application that integrates both SMS and device-centric messaging services, such as iMessage or Android Messages. This preference for and trust in SMS demonstrates a clear opportunity for operator-sponsored RCS to build on the allegiance consumers already have to text messaging.
RCS capabilities are wide-ranging. They include basic person-to-person chat as well as “mobile-app”-like experiences, such as booking and scheduling services or purchasing goods directly from the RCS application.
In addition to gaining a better understanding of consumers’ mobile messaging preferences, the research also produced some key findings for operators.
- First, operators must prioritize person-to-person communications to ensure RCS is seen as an app used for day-to-day texting as well as messaging.
- Second, operators should quickly launch application-to-person functionality to make it easy for consumers to control interactions with the brands they like.
- And finally, operators must prioritize privacy and security so that RCS becomes the app consumers trust for everything.
Glenn Lurie, President and CEO, Synchronoss
Messaging’ is reserved for messaging applications, such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp or Instagram, while ‘texting’ is considered to sit outside of this messaging arena and is a different activity entirely. For consumers, texting is fullproof.
