RCS Messaging: Every Terminology You Need To Know

A2P Messaging

A2P Messaging stands for Application-to-person messaging. This refers to the interaction between an application and the recipient where the application initiates the first message.

Read This: An Overview of the Use of A2P in Major Industries

Agent

An agent is a conversational entity representing the brand that interacts with users and is managed by a partner. This includes any interface the user interacts with, code, or infrastructure needed to power the conversation.

Aggregator

An Aggregator or SMS aggregator is a service provider that makes the sending and receiving of SMS, RCS, and MMS messages on behalf of the business.

It bridges the gap between mobile network operators and businesses, helping companies to send a large volume of messages simultaneously.

API

API stands for Application Programming Interface. It is a set of rules and tools allowing a different software or platform to integrate, connect, or interact with another platform or software. API is critical to developing and integrating software for much more interconnected and interoperable applications.

Also Read: The Power of APIs in CPaaS: Easy communication integration.

Appointment Scheduling

Enhanced Business messaging offers features like appointment scheduling, where customers can book and schedule appointments through RCS messaging.

Such platforms provide the utmost convenience and exceptional customer experience regarding booking appointments within the messaging app.

Chatbots

Chatbots are complex computer programs and sets of algorithms that emulate human conversations with users.

Not all chatbots are equipped with AI, but conversational AI and other AI components such as NLP, NLU, and ML increasingly empower modern chatbots as we’re heading towards more AI adoption across industries.

Our smart and customizable chatbot, Roubot , is amongst the most advanced chatbots, ideal for Rich business communication and A2P messaging.

Custom Branding

Custom Branding is the process of creating and customizing a unique and consistent brand identity for a product or a brand, involving visual elements and components like imagery, typography, etc, to achieve high recognizability and face value. It helps brands to increase customer engagement and brand loyalty dramatically.

RCS Business Messaging platform provides various custom branding features like a verified sender profile, allowing businesses to customize the profile on the basis of the brand logo, official brand name, and visual cues. Other features like rich media content elements like carousels, images, videos, etc., also help customize your brand voice through messaging.

Dialogflow

Dialogflow is a developer tool for Google’s natural language understanding (NLU) that is used to build a conversational experience for Google assistants. It leverages machine learning to comprehend the user intent, context, and sentiment to respond with the most helpful answer.

End-to-End Encryption

End-to-end encryption in messaging is an advanced security feature that ensures only the sender and recipient can read the message and vice versa on the platform. So, no third party can access these messages as the encryption protects them. Messages that are sent using the RCS or RBM solutions are end-to-end encrypted, making them highly safe and secure.

Enhanced Messaging

RCS is a messaging service that delivers a more interactive, advanced, and engaging messaging experience, allowing users to send rich and versatile media such as images, videos, and files. It enables users to engage in group chats, and use voice and video calls as well.

File Sharing

File Sharing allows users to access particular digital files or distribute any data type. It also includes sending and receiving any documents, videos, images, or any sort of data over a network. There are different methods of file sharing, such as cloud storage services, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) sharing.

Group Chat

Group chat within an RCS messaging system is about creating and managing conversations with multiple participants. This functionality allows users to interact with more people together, engage in discussions, and improve customer engagement for business interactions.

Interactive Buttons

An interactive button is a graphical UI element that changes its visual appearance or behavior when a user interacts, usually by hovering over it or clicking on it through a mouse cursor. It adds value to the user experience and provides them with visual feedback.

For example:

• A ‘subscribe’ button for subscribing to a newsletter on a website remains red with black text saying “subscribe.”
• However, in its hover state, when someone’s mouse pointer hovers over the button, it changes to light orange, indicating or inviting the user to click on it.
• Upon pressing, the button changes to crimson red, and the loading spinner hints that subscription is the process.

Location Sharing

Sharing geological location information for users in one-to-one and group chats utilizing GPS technology and several applications like Google Maps with others in real-time, allowing users to keep tabs on their loved ones or even find lost items.

RBM

RBM stands for RCS Business Messaging, which is a communication protocol between OEMs, telecom operators, and different messaging partners to leverage A2P messaging. A leading business service provider like Route Mobile specializes in offering RBM solutions to medium and large enterprises.

Also Read: RCS Business Messaging: The Driving Force in Messaging Evolution

NLU

NLU stands for Natural Language Understanding. It is an advanced natural language processing component of artificial intelligence that can actually “read” the content of the message in natural language directly. It helps detect sentiment, entity, topic classification, and more.

Network Congestion

Network Congestion happens when there is an overload of sending rich media messages, such as high-quality images, videos, etc, with not enough bandwidth to maintain efficiency.

Offline Messaging

Offline Messaging simply means the ability to send and receive messages without needing an active internet connection. This type of technology is often used where traditional means of communication are not available in situations like natural disasters or remote areas.

Payments

RCS messaging facilitates businesses in transacting payments directly through the messaging interface, making the transaction complete for users without even leaving for a separate checkout web page or application.

This makes the payment transaction much more convenient, simple, and fast. Route Mobile offers this great tool, OmniCent , offering instant payment solutions for a simplified and convenient user shopping experience.

RCS

RCS stands for Rich Communication Services, an IP-based messaging service with rich communication features similar to a chat application but facilitated through mobile network operators.

RCS messaging, often also referred to as RCS chat and RCS texting, can be A2P (application-to-person) as well as P2P (Person-to-Person)

Rich Card

A rich card is a rectangular unit containing an image, text, interactive links, video thumbnail, etc. Here are a few features of a rich card:

• The card format makes them more visually engaging.
• Utilize structured data markup to provide search engines with much more detailed information about the content.
• Offer suggested replies or actions, making the users respond quickly without needing to type
• Rich cards can be displayed individually or in a carousel format where users can easily scroll through multiple options quickly, primarily used for showcasing products or services.

Verified Sender

Any business or brand that has gone through a verification or authentication process to confirm its identity can be called a verified sender.

This verification process develops trust and reliability amongst the users for the sender and separates them from potential spam, fraud, or phishing offenders. A Truecaller verified business caller ID could be one example of such a verification process for making a business contact a verified sender. Through Route Mobile, you will also manage to get a verified sender batch that makes it easier for users to identify your brand as authentic and trustworthy.

Also Read: Reasons why to Opt for verified SMS for Secured and trusted business communication.

Conclusion

Businesses must begin leveraging rich communication services and messaging protocols to elevate customer outreach, boost engagement, and provide a seamless customer experience through enhanced messaging platforms.

These terminologies will help businesses kickstart their journey towards the RCS messaging landscape. What next, however, will be the ideal step is to find a reputed business service provider specializing in RCS messaging.

We at Route Mobile are the top cloud communication platform service provider known for simplifying communication and providing streamlined, automated workflows for RCS and A2P messaging across industries. To get you started, contact our experts to learn more.