CLXCLX Communications, a leading Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) provider, announced the launch of the first global Rich Communications Service (RCS) messaging API with SMS fall-back.

Generally, CLX’s solutions enable business-critical communications worldwide via mobile messaging services (SMS), voice, video, data and mobile connectivity services for IoT. Now, the company provides enterprises with the opportunity to sign-up to a limited beta trial that will enable them to test application-to-person (A2P) RCS in selected countries.

Anyway, the future for the industry seems to look bright. Just late last year the GSMA confirmed that 50 mobile operators have already launched RCS and that it currently has 138 million users worldwide with a forecast to grow to 350 million in 2018 and over a billion by 2019.

SMS fall-back guarantees the delivery of messages either as a rich message for Android handsets that have RCS enabled or as a standard SMS message, if a RCS client is not present on the device.

The RCS Universal Profile 2.0 standard allows rich content features such as images, videos and intuitive reply buttons that can link to further menus and functions. It's designed to promote two-way interaction between the enterprise and the customer, enabling enhanced customer-service functions, including chatbot interactivity. Furthermore, RCS messaging also includes read and received receipts, so that marketers can perform A/B testing, gauge the success of messaging campaigns, and make changes on the fly to improve customer engagement.
CLXBesides, the GSMA estimates that by 2021 the A2P messaging market will be worth $74 billion and RCS will be a key driver of this growth as well as the emerging Messaging-as-a-Platform market as a whole (MaaP). MaaP is the evolution of mobile messaging as a customer engagement channel, which can include making use of business (A2P) messaging that incorporates chatbots that use artificial intelligence (AI).

RCS received a significant boost in Feb 2017 when Google announced the launch of its Early Access Program to Android Business Messaging, the first A2P Service based on the RCS standard. And CLX has clearly come a long way since starting out in 2008, having a presence in more than 20 countries by now.

By MediaBUZZ