RCS has seen a huge increase in popularity since iPhones began supporting the communication protocol. Google reports that over a billion RCS messages are sent every day in the United States — a truly impressive number. While the RCS platform is great, it needs a monetization strategy, and that’s where RCS Business Messaging and its ads come in.
See also: GSMA: End-to-end encryption for RCS messages – Secure Cross-Platform Messaging
This service allows businesses to send RCS messages to users, which is great for them, but it’s essentially a form of advertising to consumers. While markets like India have long been inundated with RCS ads, it seems that users in the US are now getting in on the advertising — whether they like it or not.
A Reddit user reported receiving an RCS message from the Los Angeles Rams on his iPhone, which included an interactive carousel for purchasing tickets for various games.
Although not officially confirmed, the scrollable carousel for upcoming events looks very similar to what was recently announced as part of Clerk Chat with Google, Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T for RCS Business Messaging, as spotted by PhoneArena.
See also: RCS message reactions from Android now display correctly on iOS
As part of this partnership, Clerk Chat offers businesses the ability to reach users via RCS, enabling them to:
- Scroll through a carousel of upcoming events
- They view and make purchases directly through their mobile messaging app
- Interact with concierge-style services for personalized information
Of course, no business proposition is complete today without the addition of artificial intelligence. So, Clerk Chat says that its AI agents improve conversion rates via RCS by “personalizing the customer experience in real time.” In other words, as a user, you’re not just getting ads — you’re getting ads with artificial intelligence.
While this all sounds great for businesses, in practice it means more ads for users, which now arrive directly in messaging app , regardless of the operating system they’re using. There doesn’t seem to be any obvious way to unsubscribe or stop receiving such messages — which makes for a very poor user experience.
See also: GSMA: End-to-end encryption plans for RCS messaging
Some users might enjoy the experience if the ads are relevant to their interests, but most of us already have enough experience with ads and AI to understand where things are headed.
Source: androidauthority
