The next big threat to RCS isn’t another messaging app

The clock is ticking for RCS as AI threatens to rewrite the rules of messaging. The next big threat to RCS isn’t another messaging app. Despite billions of daily RCS messages, commercial adoption remains relatively small, with the technology still largely focused on notifications.

The GSMA is developing new conversational capabilities, but hasn’t announced specific features or release timelines. That’s how long the GSMA believes RCS has to establish itself as a serious player in the next era of messaging, or risk watching AI-powered conversations and rival platforms define that future without it. It’s an unusually urgent warning from the organization responsible for the messaging standard, especially as RCS adoption accelerates.

But the concern isn’t whether people will continue sending messages. It’s whether those messages can do more than simply deliver information in a world where AI assistants are increasingly capable of acting on it.