# What is RCS

Verified branded messaging inside the phone's default messaging app: currently, text with quick-reply buttons; plus SMS fallback for anyone who can't receive it.

**Language:** en
**Audience:** platform
**TLDR:** RCS is messaging that arrives in the phone's default messaging app, but with your verified brand up front and buttons the contact can tap in one go. In Instasent you currently send text with Quick actions (the quick-reply buttons); rich cards, carousels and media are coming soon. Messages are sent from a registered and verified RCS agent, and if a contact can't receive RCS it reaches them by SMS when fallback is enabled (SMS Fallback).
**Translation key:** platform.channels.rcs.what-is-rcs
**Search keywords:** rcs, what is rcs, rich communication services, rcs for business, quick actions, add action, quick reply, rcs buttons, verified agent, verified brand, sms fallback, rich card, rcs carousel, read receipts
**Related pages:** /platform/es/channels/rcs/what-is-rcs, /platform/en/channels/rcs/agent-profile, /platform/en/channels/rcs/agent-best-practices, /platform/en/channels/rcs/senders-verification, /platform/en/channels/rcs/availability, /platform/en/channels/rcs/sms-fallback, /platform/en/campaigns/creating-a-campaign
**Docs index (every page):** https://docs.instasent.com/llms.txt
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**Other language (es):** https://docs.instasent.com/platform/es/channels/rcs/what-is-rcs.md

RCS (*Rich Communication Services*) is a messaging channel that arrives straight to the phone's default messaging app, with nothing for the contact to install. Unlike SMS, messages are sent from a **verified brand** — with your name, your logo and your color — and can carry images, cards, buttons and quick replies so the contact acts or replies with a single tap.

And when a contact can't receive RCS, the message can be sent by SMS as a backup, as long as *fallback* is enabled. In Instasent you use RCS for campaigns, notifications, confirmations and customer care, and you compose it in the same editor as any other campaign (see [Creating a campaign](/platform/en/campaigns/creating-a-campaign)).

In short: **a more visual, interactive and recognizable experience than SMS, without giving up coverage.**

## Your verified brand, not a number

RCS messages arrive from a **verified agent**: your logo, your brand color, your name and your description appear at the top of the conversation, alongside your contact links. To whoever receives it, it reads as the profile of a trusted business inside their messaging app — not an unknown number — and that changes how the message is received before it's even read. Every field of that identity — name, logo, banner, color — is detailed in [Your RCS agent profile](/platform/en/channels/rcs/agent-profile); how it's registered and verified, in [RCS senders & verification](/platform/en/channels/rcs/senders-verification).

![Phone preview of an RCS message from a verified brand, with the name and logo at the top, a message with a link, and quick-reply buttons below](/platform/en/channels/images/what-is-rcs-1.png)
*This is how your contact sees an RCS message: your verified brand in the header, the message with its link, and the Quick actions — the quick-reply buttons — right below.*

## What you can send

Currently, an RCS campaign in Instasent sends **text with Quick actions**:

- **Text** — up to **3072 characters** (well beyond an SMS), with the same personalization and the same unsubscribe link you already use.
- **Quick actions** — quick-reply buttons below the message, up to **4** per send. We cover them just below.

> **Note**: **Coming soon.** **Rich cards** (a card with a title, image or video, description and buttons), **carousels** (a swipeable row of cards) and **media** (images, video, audio and files) are on the way for the campaign builder — they can't be sent yet.

{/* VERIFY: no per-file media byte-size limit is documented (only the card thumbnail, max 100 KB). Do not state a media size limit until confirmed. */}

## Quick actions

**Quick actions** are quick-reply buttons — RCS *suggestion chips* — that appear below the message. The contact taps an option, like "Yes", "View map" or "Call", and moves forward without typing anything: the conversation stops being a one-way notice and becomes something you can interact with.

In the campaign composer you add them from the **Add action** button (up to **4** per message). There are four types:

- **Quick reply** — sends the button's text back as a reply.
- **URL link** — opens a link in the browser.
- **Call** — starts a call to the number you set.
- **Unsubscribe** — enables opt-out; Instasent adds the link automatically.

Each button's text (**Button text**) is short: up to **25 characters**.

## Limits

| Element                             | Limit           |
| ----------------------------------- | --------------- |
| Text message                        | 3072 characters |
| Quick actions per message           | 0 to 4          |
| Button text                         | 25 characters   |
| Card title *(coming soon)*          | 200 characters  |
| Card description *(coming soon)*    | 2000 characters |
| Buttons per card *(coming soon)*    | 4               |
| Cards in a carousel *(coming soon)* | 2 to 5          |

## Delivery and read receipts

RCS is a two-way channel: you know when a message is **delivered** to the device and when it's **read**, with the channel's native read receipts. Those states, together with each send's delivery and open rate, show up in the [campaign results](/platform/en/campaigns/campaign-analytics).

> **Note**: Which features your agent can use depends on what's approved for it in each country. See [Availability & rollout](/platform/en/channels/rcs/availability).

## When a contact can't receive RCS

Not every phone can receive RCS yet. When one can't, Instasent delivers your message as an SMS automatically, so no one is left without it — this is what we call [SMS Fallback](/platform/en/channels/rcs/sms-fallback). To set up the sender your RCS is sent from, continue to [RCS senders & verification](/platform/en/channels/rcs/senders-verification).

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