RCS or SMS? It Depends on the Task

Text messaging’s app-like Rich Communication Services is now available on most mobile phones, giving retail marketers options reminiscent of text-only versus HTML email.

Originally, email messages were text, similar to mobile’s Short Message Service, commonly known as texting. Email messages did not fully support HTML until 1996, with the release of Hotmail (originally HoTMaiL). That was some 25 years after email’s invention and two years after Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.

Even so, it took another 14 years for HTML and responsive email design to become ubiquitous across email clients.

RCS

RCS has reached that point of ubiquity. An estimated 96% of U.S. mobile devices include the service,  according to the “State of Messaging Report 2026” from Bandwidth Inc., a provider of enterprise RCS tools.

RCS’s cost structure is “still evolving,” according to Twilio, the source of the table below. “Some carriers charge per message, others per session, and pricing varies significantly by region and provider. In many cases, RCS messages cost more than SMS but deliver more value.”

In fact, sending an RCS in 2026 typically costs at least twice as much as an SMS, if not more.

Similar to HTML’s impact on email presentation, however, RCS can turn a text message into a product display, a guided shopping experience, or a service conversation. So it’s little surprise that 59% of surveyed businesses were planning an RCS deployment, according to the Bandwidth Inc. report.

Yet not every texting campaign needs the latest and most expensive technology.

For ecommerce merchants, the decision to use RCS should begin with the shopper’s needs and end with a comparison of RCS and SMS performance, costs, and conversions.

RCS is widely available, but the business case for it remains unclear.

Jobs to Be Done

RCS makes the most sense when it helps shoppers complete a task.

The jobs-to-be-done framework, developed by the late Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen and consultant Anthony Ulwick, focuses on a product’s ability to solve consumers’ immediate tasks rather than its features. The framework is helpful for the RCS-to-SMS comparison.

For example, a shopper does not necessarily want a product carousel. She may instead find that thumbing through product images completes the task of comparing items.

That distinction between features and utility should guide an RCS campaign. A marketer can describe the job in a simple sentence:

When they receive this message, shoppers need to [_____] to [ ______].

For example, shoppers might need to see the items in a cart to complete a purchase. Another might need to select a delivery window to receive the order.

RCS is useful when its images, choices, buttons, or conversational features make that job easier than an SMS.

Shopping Jobs

The strongest ecommerce use cases for RCS tend to align with the jobs shoppers need to complete.

Those jobs include:

• Recover a purchase. View abandoned products and return to checkout.
• Evaluate an item. See images, prices, variations, or several related products.
• Act on availability. Review a back-in-stock item and purchase it before it sells out.
• Choose an option. Select a loyalty reward, delivery time, product variation, or replacement.
• Confirm information. Verify an address, delivery instruction, or order change.
• Resolve a problem. Share a photo, answer questions, or select a return or replacement.
• Find the right product. Respond to guided questions and receive a relevant recommendation.

For an RCS campaign, a marketer can identify one primary job and one completion event.

An abandoned-cart message, for example, should be judged by purchases, not carousel views. A delivery message should be measured by successful scheduling, not button clicks.

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SMS Jobs

The jobs-to-be-done question is not whether RCS offers a better visual experience. The question is whether the recipient needs rich media or interaction to progress.

SMS works well when the shopper’s job is simple, urgent, and easy to complete. It’s a better channel to:

• Know what happened. Confirm that an order was received, shipped, delayed, or delivered.
• Act quickly. Retrieve a one-time passcode, update a failed payment, or collect an order before a deadline.
• Find something. Track a package, complete checkout, or view an available product.
• Receive a notification. Get a pickup, delivery, or appointment reminder.

These jobs do not usually require a carousel, response buttons, or a guided conversation.

Measurement

When in doubt, test. Select a common job of shoppers when making a purchase and set up RCS and SMS automations.

Aim the automations at similar customers, offers, products, and timing.

Useful measures include:

• Task completion rate,
• Conversion rate,
• Revenue per recipient,
• Cost per completed action,
• Unsubscribe rate.

RCS is worth the cost when it helps shoppers complete a job more profitably than SMS. Otherwise, the simpler message remains the better choice.