RCS messaging overview

RCS (Rich Communication Services) is a richer form of text messaging that compatible phones receive in their built-in messaging app. From an inbox with RCS, you can send photos, videos and PDFs, send cards with buttons, and see when a contact reads your message. Contacts who cannot receive RCS get SMS or MMS instead, automatically.

Turn on RCS for an inbox

RCS is set up per inbox by emu.chat, not from your settings. To find out whether RCS is available for your inbox, or to turn it on, contact support.

How to tell a message sends as RCS

Check the length counter next to the send button. When a message will send as RCS, the counter shows 1 RCS in brackets instead of a number of SMS segments. With attachments, it shows how many RCS, MMS and SMS messages the send produces, such as 2 RCS + 1 SMS. For more on the counter, see Sending messages.

Checking whether a contact can receive RCS

On some RCS inboxes, emu.chat checks whether a contact's phone can receive RCS when you open the conversation. If it cannot, the counter changes to show the message sends as SMS (hover over it for the reason), attachments send as MMS, and emu.chat sends it that way from the start.

If the check is not on for your inbox, or no answer is available yet, emu.chat tries RCS first and falls back if it fails. Campaigns don't run the check themselves, so they usually work this way.

Automatic fallback to SMS or MMS

If an RCS message cannot be delivered, emu.chat resends it from your inbox's number as SMS, or as MMS if it has a photo. You do not need to do anything. The message status follows the resend, so the failed RCS attempt does not show as Failed. See Why did my message fail? (message statuses explained).

Sending media over RCS

RCS carries photos, videos and PDFs, up to 20 MB each. Each one sends as its own message, and your text sends as a separate message. Other files, and videos in formats RCS does not carry, send together as one SMS with download links.

To send a card with a title, media and buttons, see Send RCS cards. You can also save cards as templates: see Create and use message templates.

Read receipts

Only RCS reports when a contact reads a message. A read message shows an eye icon with the time it was read. SMS and MMS messages stop at Delivered.