Business RCS messages to hit 485 billion by 2030

Hampshire: Business rich communication services (RCS) messages are expected to reach more than 485 billion globally by 2030, up 286 per cent from 125 billion in 2026, according to a new study by Juniper Research.

The research found that the growing adoption of RCS, including its support on Apple devices announced in 2024, is driving the shift. Businesses are increasingly expected to migrate authentication traffic from SMS to RCS, as the technology offers improved verification and branding without additional costs.

Juniper Research recommends that communication service providers first target easily migrated traffic to introduce brands to the RCS ecosystem, before upselling more advanced use cases such as conversational messaging.

Retail is expected to remain the largest single vertical for business RCS messages through 2030, accounting for more than 30 per cent of global messages. However, its share is projected to fall from more than 37 per cent in 2026 as adoption accelerates across other sectors.

Healthcare and banking RCS messages are forecast to grow by more than 1,000 per cent and 600 per cent, respectively, by 2030, compared with just over 200 per cent growth in retail.

“Authentication is clearly a major use case within retail for secure customer authentication, but this is also a clear requirement for banks and healthcare providers. Particularly within banking, branding and personalisation is increasingly important to customer retention; making RCS the perfect fit,” said Peter Boyland, principal analyst, Juniper Research.

The report, RCS for Business Market 2026-2030, covers market analysis and forecasts across 61 countries and five years, spanning more than 160,000 data points. It also includes a competitor leaderboard and an assessment of future market opportunities.