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RCS at ClickSend

This guide provides an overview of Rich Communication Services (RCS) at ClickSend, including its features, benefits, and how to get your business set up.

Updated today

What is RCS?

Rich Communication Services (RCS) is the next generation of business messaging. It is designed to create a more trustworthy, engaging, and measurable communication experience compared to traditional SMS.

With RCS, your business can send messages from a verified, branded sender profile and receive read receipts. This helps your customers feel confident that your messages are legitimate and allows you to better understand their engagement.

If you want to get RCS via API please reach out to our friendly sales team who can help qualify you and guide you through the set-up process (sales@clicksend.com).


Why RCS is Powerful

RCS offers two significant advantages over standard SMS:

Verified & Trusted Sender Identity

RCS messages come from a branded profile that immediately tells customers who you are:

The verification tick is issued by Google and un-fakeable. This means that your customers can trust your messages and that there is a reduced chance of your messages being mistaken as spam.

Your branded RCS Sender ID will include:

  • Verified Sender Badge A checkmark indicating your business is verified by Google, Sinch ClickSend and the participating carriers.

  • Company Name Your business name is displayed as the Sender ID.

  • Company Logo Your logo appears next to your business name.

  • Business Details A brief summary of what your business does, as well as your website and business contact details

Read Receipts & Engagement Visibility

RCS supports READ receipts, so you can see when your messages have been opened:

This delivers:

  • Better engagement measurement: Understand what content works.

  • More accurate timing for follow-up messages: Fine-tune your strategy.

  • Stronger performance insights than SMS alone: Make date-driven decisions.


Available Features at ClickSend

Our current RCS solution focuses on providing a trusted sender identity and enhanced reporting via READ receipts for API customers.

What's available now:

  • API access for integration.

  • A simple, no-code setup process: Send through your usual SMS API endpoints (successful RCS application required).

  • Verified sender profile with your brand name and logo.

  • Read receipts to track engagement.

  • Two-way messaging capabilities.

  • Automatic SMS fallback for devices that do not support RCS.

Coming soon:

  • RCS messaging in the public dashboard

  • RCS registration via self-service

If you want to try RCS via API please reach out to our friendly sales team who can help qualify you and guide you through the set-up process (sales@clicksend.com).


Best Use Cases for RCS

RCS is most effective in scenarios where trust and delivery confirmation are critical.

Use Case

Description

OTP & Verifications

Securely send one-time passcodes and verification messages from a trusted source.

Appointment Reminders

Reduce no-shows with branded reminders that customers can trust.

Confirmations & Alerts

Send order confirmations, shipping alerts, and other important notifications.

Critical Customer Updates

Ensure your most important messages are seen and acknowledged.

High-Trust Marketing

Build confidence in your marketing campaigns with a verified sender profile.


RCS Availability & Requirements

RCS availability is dependent on the recipient's country, mobile carrier, and handset. Note that Android phone operating systems have wider coverage than iOS. The mobile handset must be RCS capable to receive RCS messages.

Support Level

Support definition

Regions

Fully Supported

All carriers and phone operating systems supported

France, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom, United States

Partially Supported

  • Not all carriers support RCS

and/or

  • Not all phone operating systems are supported (often Android only)

Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden

Not Currently Supported

RCS not support for A2P (application to person, i.e. business messaging)

Australia and most other regions


How to Apply for an RCS Sender Profile

To send RCS messages, your business must complete a Sender Agent application with Google and network carriers. The process can take up to 12 weeks to complete.

Please get in touch with our friendly sales team to help qualify you at sales@clicksend.com.

Application Requirements

Requirements differ on a country basis, but at a minimum, you will need to provide:

Application section

Information

Requirements

Company brand details for your customer-facing RCS Sender ID

Important: Customer-facing details cannot be edited after your RCS Sender ID is verified. Each change will require you to launch a new application.

Company or brand name

Character limit: 40 characters

Pick the company or brand name which your customers will see as the Sender ID name on their handset.

While 40 characters are allowed, it's generally best to keep the Sender ID concise, ideally within 15-25 alphanumeric characters, to ensure consistent display across different devices and platforms (i.e. avoid truncation with ellipses).

Logo

Size: 224 x 224 pixels, max 50KB)

Pick your company or brand logo which will be visible to your customers as part of the Sender ID name on their handset.

Company or brand description

Character limit: 100 characters

This is the description which your customers will see when clicking on your RCS Sender ID profile.

Banner background image

Size: 1440 x 448 pixels, max 200KB

This is the background image which your customers will see in your RCS Sender ID profile.

Brand colour

Must have a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against a white background (#FFFFFF). You can check this here: https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/

In your RCS Sender ID profile the brand colour will be applied to buttons and text.

Business contact phone

Please share the exact number you want to display, including country code if needed.

This is the business contact phone number which customers will see in your RCS Sender ID profile.

Business contact email

This is the business contact email number which customers will see in your RCS Sender ID profile.

Business website

This is the business website URL which customers will see in your RCS Sender ID profile.

Company business details for business verification with Google & Sinch

ClickSend user ID

This is the account on which you want to send RCS messages.

Legal company name

This is the legal name as displayed in your official business registration documents.

Name of the company owner or representative

Only the legal business owner or representative can register an RCS Sender ID for the business. This is likely a Managing Director or CEO.

Job title of the company owner or representative

Job title of the legal business owner or representative, e.g. ‘Managing Director’, ‘CEO’.

Number of the company owner or representative

This is the personal business number and will not be visible to the customer.

Email of the company owner or representative

This is the personal business email and will not be visible to the customer.

Company address

The official, registered business address of your company.

Privacy policy

You must provide a live, working URL to your privacy policy

Terms & Conditions

You must provide a live, working URL to your Ts&Cs

RCS usage details for your application with Google & Sinch

Region

You have a choice of:

  • Europe

  • US

  • Asia

  • South America

Please note you need to launch separate applications for each region you want to send RCS in.

Country

The country you will use your RCS Sender in. Please refer to the section above for available countries.

Use case

You have a choice of:

  • Promotional

  • OTP

  • Transactional

  • Multi-use

Please note that you will only be permitted to send traffic for the one, specific use case you applied for. If you want to change your use case you must lodge a new application.

Message triggers

Tell us how you trigger messages to your customers.

We will provide you with options to choose from, such as: upon package delivery, on a specific date/time.

Customer interactions

Tell us how your customers interact with you after you sent the message.

We will provide you with options to choose from, such as: customer support inquiries, event registration, newsletters.

Opt-in mechanism

Tell us how your customers opt in to receiving messages from your business:

  • By subscribing to our loyalty program

  • By making a purchase in-store or online

  • By subscribing to a newsletter

  • By creating an account on our website or app

Opt-in visual proof

We will ask you to attach a URL or screenshot to your application, to show how your opt-in mechanism works.

Opt-out messaging

Tell us what message your customers receive once they opt-out:

  • Thank you for opting out

  • Thank you for unsubscribing

  • We hav registered your opt out request

RCS test number

You can add a number to your application with which you can test RCS even before final approval. We recommend that you choose your own phone number if your device is capable.

Your account manager or support agent will work with you to initiative a test message from the system.

SMS fallback number

We will use this Sender ID to send an SMS to your customer in case their handset can’t receive RCS messages.

If you don’t provide this number we will fallback to any available, compliant Sender ID on your profile (e.g. a shared number, alpha tag or dedicated number if available).

FAQs

Can my phone receive RCS messages?

If the following conditions apply, yes:

  • You must be in an RCS approved country

  • On an RCS approved carriers

  • With an RCS approved operating system (Android or iOS)

  • Your handset must be RCS capable

My phone is RCS capable but I can’t see RCS, what do I do?

Please check that you turned on RCS in your native messaging app:

  • Android: Google Messages

  • iOS: Messages

Why aren’t URLs hyperlinked in the RCS messages I receive?

This is usually related to the handset or third-party apps/VPNs. Certain apps, especially VPNs, can interfere with RCS functionality. An example for impacted handset is the iPhone 13 mini (2022). To correctly display URLs on impacted devices please try the steps below:

  • Restart Your iPhone: A simple restart can fix stuck features, including RCS.

  • Toggle RCS Off/On: Go to Settings > Apps > Messages > RCS Messaging and toggle it off, wait a few seconds, and turn it back on.

  • Force Restart: If the above doesn't work, perform a forced restart (press and release Volume Up, press and release Volume Down, then hold the side button).

  • Long-Press/Trust Sender: If the link is not clickable, long-press the message and interact with it (like reacting with a thumbs up) to signal to iOS that the sender is trusted, which can activate the link.

Can I continue to send messages while my RCS application is being processed?

Yes. You can continue to send messages from Alpha Tags, Dedicated Numbers and shared numbers (if available for your country) while your RCS application is being processed.

What is my SMS fallback number?

This is the default Sender ID you specified via Smart Senders (e.g. a shared number, dedicated number or alpha tag). When RCS is not deliverable due to your recipient’s handset or carrier network, we will deliver your message as an SMS from your Smart Sender fallback Sender ID.

Can I send RCS messages via the dashboard?

RCS is an API product only for now, but we will support the functionality in the dashboard in the future.

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