Nuance Joins Google’s Early Access Program to Bring RCS Business Messaging to Enterprises Worldwide

New messaging standard helps organizations better engage customers through high-touch mobile conversations that can include rich media files and video calls

. RCS is the next generation of SMS messaging and allows for group messaging, rich media (maps, high-res photos, etc.) and read receipts. RCS business messaging offers organizations an opportunity to bring branded and interactive conversational experiences to a smartphone’s native messaging application, providing customers a simple and convenient method to engage with businesses and access service.

According to the GSMA, by 2020 the business messaging market is projected to reach $74 billion and 86% of smartphones will be RCS-enabled. A recent Nuance study also found that more than half of overall consumers prefer to use messaging applications as the first option to communicate with companies. Nuance supports business messaging through a variety of channels, including traditional SMS, and third-party and native apps. This participation in the Early Access Program further strengthens Nuance’s ability to design one conversational experience and extend it across all the channels today’s consumers engage by combining AI-powered virtual assistant technology with agent-assisted messaging. With Nuance, enterprises can engage in millions of intelligent RCS conversations with their customers, using the same machine learning output they’ve deployed on other channels.

Read More: Interview with David Sikora, Chief Executive Officer at ALTR

Todd Parker, Global Head of Business Development, Messaging for Google said, “RCS business messaging makes it possible for brands to send messages to their customers in a whole new way, sharing and receiving high-res photos, maps and calendar invites all while taking advantage of suggested replies and other interactive experiences right within their customers’ native smartphone messaging application.”

Read More: Insurtech: the new AI disruption is hitting insurance

Google’s RCS business messaging supports the GSMA’s Universal Profile for interoperability across operator networks and devices. Through the Nuance Omnichannel Customer Engagement Platform, organizations can understand and send interactive notifications most relevant to customers. The platform also enables responding to customer inquiries with interactive buttons, carousels and multimedia content tailored to an individual’s profile and engagement history.

“There’s a huge opportunity for organizations to take advantage of the latest innovations in RCS messaging that enable highly interactive, personalized and branded conversations,” said Tony Lorentzen, SVP, Omnichannel Solutions Group, Enterprise Division, Nuance. “We are excited to work with Google to enable yet another channel for our enterprise customers to extend their conversational AI engine to, the same one that powers their web-based virtual assistant and IVR, to bring personalized experiences and fast resolution no matter which channel an individual chooses to engage.”