It’s been rough…

RCS has been through some tough times, as a standard and as a messaging service, and it’s not done yet. It still has a way to go until we really consider it as successful as SMS, as “success” for many, means ubiquity, which means inter-operability between all carriers and all handsets. There’s lots left to do.

However, there is one glimmer of a shining star among the growing number of RCS deployments and news articles about its foray into business messaging. I call it the “Pokémon Go affect”.

Some went this way….

When RCS Messaging as a Platform (MaaP) was defined as a standard, the concept that the handset would be able to search a directory of published businesses seemed like a feature designed by a web search company. Many of the mobile network operators agreed this was nice, but most agreed that RCS business messaging should focus to help businesses directly message their customers (Mobile Operators call this application to person or A2P messaging). The RCS standard gave us new graphics and suggested reply buttons and the ability to have “chatbot” type conversations. Its secure, it’s authenticated and it’s been quite well done.

Now, A2P SMS has been around for a very long time, and it carries with it some very unpleasant history. SPAM, Phishing and Fraud (and corresponding law suits) are all problems that A2P SMS has had, and RCS has (of course) provided technology to prevent these happening again. There are still very stringent laws about OPT-IN, OPT-OUT for A2P services, and in Europe there are new GDP laws as well. Bottom line, RCS has to crawl out from a very deep pit for A2P messaging to be considered “new” or “interesting” or simply just “not annoying” by the general user population. It is already a worry by some that RCS A2P messaging isn’t compelling enough regardless of how many pixels and buttons we dress it up with. RCS A2P might not be enough to save operator messaging in markets where users have already switched to OTT messaging Apps. After all, the OTTs Apps do business messaging as well.

So, what about Pokémon?

Pokémon Go did what RCS needs (needed) to do. It took a semi-popular game and added a feature that made it a viral phenomenon, overnight. That feature was the ability to discover and capture new creatures. It used a cool interface, coupled with GPS location, and was a huge success.

So how is that same feature applicable to RCS business messaging? They are both about DISCOVERY.

Users of the Samsung’s RCS handset are presented immediately (as soon as they open the default messaging client) with a new tab that says “Chatbot directory”.

It’s new. It wasn’t there before. Other Messaging apps make you click twice to find Chatbots or businesses, this design draws you straight there.

What’s in it? Brands, businesses, news, shopping, travel, games, sports..

New stuff you’ve never seen or tried before.

How do I start a conversation? Click on a Brand and say “Chat”.

Go look. Go discover.





Decent deep dive: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoqZlTKfV00 )

For the user, every Business entry is a different experience, a different adventure. They don’t need to download a new App. The interface is clean, it’s intuitive, it’s updated regularly (almost daily right now). The volume of user visits to the directory is simply astonishing, and for a brand, a user click of their listing entry leads to a full page advertisement of them. If the user then hits “chat”, it’s the start of a wonderful new relationship (note the user can still type ‘Stop’ at any time). Some brands have fully fledged Artificial Intelligent Chatbots (like Zoe) others play games with you (Quartz) and others let you buy flowers, shoes, furniture or book travel or send you news or weather alerts (CNN, AcuWeather).

Summary

The “Pokémon Go affect” is about discovery and so is the Chatbot Directory. It’s the same principle that drove grown men to wander aimlessly around fields and parks and airports holding their phone out in from of them – it’s about capturing something “new”.

In the mobile messaging world we would call this type of messaging “P2A” (yes, the opposite of A2P), but discovery often does NOT drive a user message, just a browse. That’s bad, but the brands know this and we encourage directory entries to get refreshed, yes ‘It’s your new storefront brands, you need to make it look better’ - which is where the messaging client design will go help out next. Now that the directory tab has proven legs, it needs better graphics, categories and probably user driven personalization (users will want to know when brands in a certain category get added to the directory).

What AT&T and Samsung have shown is that RCS is now able to attract users to connect directly with businesses and brands, and it’s driven by the user (and not a hopeful A2P campaign). The engagement factor for P2A is much higher than A2P, the volume of messages is much higher, and the conversion rates are obviously higher. Of the brands that have listed in the directory, one commented “it blew our minds” when they saw their first month’s results.

The biggest challenge that lays ahead of RCS now (when it comes to P2A) is to not make the same mistakes as SMS. Success means work - directories take maintenance, content needs curation, organizations will always need policing. I’ll take those challenges gladly, and it’s going to be a fun ride.

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