Products · RCS
RCS turns a plain text into a branded, interactive message with a verified checkmark. Getting there takes a Google agent, two separate brand verifications, and a launch on every carrier. Here’s how it works, and how Ekas gets you verified on the first try.
Ekas checks your agent before Google or the carriers do.
Messages
Welcome to Northwind
Dr. Aline
Your appointment is confirmed
City Transit
Service alert on the Blue Line
Mom
Call me when you get a sec
Ekas gets your agent verified and launched, first submission.
RCS turns a text into a branded, interactive message, and both reach and carrier economics are moving toward it.
1B+
RCS messages are sent in the US every single day.
Google, 2025
82%
of active iPhones run iOS 18, which turns RCS on.
Apple, 2025
88%
of people trust a message more when it shows a verified badge.
Datos Insights, 2025
3→18%
of carrier business-messaging revenue will be RCS by 2029.
Juniper Research
All three carriers, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, run RCS on Google’s Jibe backend. That makes the path to a verified agent mostly a Google path, with a separate US carrier vet running alongside it.
You, or your customer
The business behind the messages. To send branded RCS it needs a verified agent, and that agent carries your name, logo and checkmark.
A Google-certified partner
Twilio, Sinch, Infobip, Vonage or Bandwidth. They create the agent on Google and submit it for verification and launch. Most brands reach RCS through one.
The US backbone
Runs the RCS platform behind all three carriers through its Jibe backend. Google creates agents, handles brand verification, and approves launches. It charges nothing and sets no message price.
They set the price
AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon each approve an agent for their own network and set the per-message surcharge. Google reviews some launches; the carrier reviews others directly.
The US RCS vet
A paid Aegis “RCS Vet” through TCR clears your brand to run RCS campaigns on US carriers. It is separate from Google’s verification, and it happens on the same brand you registered for 10DLC.
Android and iPhone
Once an agent is verified and launched, your branding and checkmark show in the conversation. Since iOS 18, that reaches iPhone too, expanding carrier by carrier.
Creating the agent is quick. Earning the checkmark and clearing every carrier is where the weeks go.
Step 1
You or your aggregator create an RCS agent on Google and load its branding. A few of these choices lock the moment you submit.
What it takes
Where it fails
Wrong-size assets, low-contrast colors, or a use case that doesn’t match your sample messages get bounced at the door.
Step 2
An authorized employee at the brand confirms, by email, that the partner may message on the brand’s behalf. This is what earns the verified checkmark.
What it takes
Where it fails
Branding that doesn’t match your website or app is the most common flag. Consistency is the whole test.
Step 3
On the US carrier side, a paid Aegis vet through The Campaign Registry clears your brand to run RCS campaigns. It runs on the same brand you registered for 10DLC.
What it takes
Where it fails
You pay the $75 whether it passes or fails, and it has to clear before any RCS campaign can go live.
Step 4
Each carrier approves your agent for its own network. Google handles some launches; others the carrier reviews directly, and those need a contract already in place.
What it takes
Where it fails
A broken preview link, a weak opt-out demo, or a carrier-managed launch with no contract stalls the whole thing.
Verification changes how your messages look and how far they reach. The rich features already work in testing; verification and launch are what make them public.
Logo, business name, brand color and the verified checkmark sit at the top of the conversation, on Android and increasingly on iPhone.
Send images, video, and product carousels of up to ten cards, or files up to 100 MB, in place of a single line of text.
Tappable buttons that dial a number, open a link, share a location, or add a calendar event, right inside the message.
You see delivered and read status; the customer sees typing indicators. It reads like a real conversation, not a broadcast.
Sent, delivered and read counts come back per agent, so you can measure what plain SMS never showed you.
Before launch an agent reaches only test devices. The rich features already work there. Verification and launch are what open it to everyone.
Reviewers check that your brand is real, consistent, and honest about what it sends. Most rejections trace to a few gaps.
Name and colors don’t match northwind.com, and the use case is too broad.
Branding matches the website, and the use case is specific.
Your logo, name or colors don’t match your website or app. This is the single most common flag.
The sample messages don’t match the declared use case. An OTP agent can’t send promotions.
No live privacy policy or terms of service, or links that don’t resolve when a reviewer clicks them.
The preview doesn’t show how people opt in, or a working STOP reply that honors the request.
Hate, illegal goods, tobacco and political content are out; alcohol, gambling and healthcare are limited.
An inaccessible demo video, wrong-size images, or brand colors that don’t meet the contrast rule.
At the message level, RCS sits close to SMS. The premium is front-loaded, in verification and onboarding you pay before the first message goes out.
RCS vet (Aegis)
Clears your brand for RCS campaigns; charged even if it fails
Logo + banner verification
To show your branded logo and banner
Agent + brand verification
Google charges nothing and sets no message price
Carrier onboarding
One-time; T-Mobile adds a $500 activation
Rich text message
Roughly the price of a plain SMS segment
Rich media message
A card, carousel or media: about 2–4× an SMS segment
To get one brand live
Getting a brand verified and live runs roughly $700–1,000 in the first year, most of it CPaaS onboarding and the RCS vet stack. After that, text sends cost about what SMS costs, and rich media about what MMS costs.
RCS vs plain SMS
A 10DLC brand costs $4.50 to register. An RCS brand reuses it, then adds the $75/year vet, asset verification, and onboarding, in exchange for branding, rich content, and the checkmark.
Ekas RCS PreCheck reads the whole agent submission and flags what Google or a carrier would reject, before it goes in.
Ekas reviews the agent, the assets, the use case and the opt-in flow up front, and tells you what would fail before Google or a carrier sees it.
The mismatch that sinks most agents, branding that doesn’t line up with your site, is the first thing Ekas checks.
Ekas covers Google’s brand verification and the TCR Aegis RCS vet, so neither one blocks you late in the process.
You get the exact change to make, not a rejection reason that surfaces weeks into a carrier review.
If you follow the fixes and still get rejected, it doesn’t count against your quota, and Ekas covers the vetting fee.
Keep Twilio, Sinch, Infobip, Vonage or Bandwidth. Ekas sits on top as the compliance layer above whoever you send with.
Works with your provider
Keep sending the way you do today. Ekas sits on top as the compliance layer above whichever aggregator carries your RCS.
RCS is the branded, verified end of messaging. The same verify-and-fix engine covers your other channels.
They’re different channels. 10DLC is plain SMS from a 10-digit number; RCS adds your brand, logo, verified checkmark, and rich content. RCS reuses your registered 10DLC brand and falls back to SMS when a phone can’t receive it.
Yes, since iOS 18. Consumer RCS on iPhone is broadly live, and business RCS with verified branding is expanding across the US carriers. One verified agent can reach both Android and iPhone.
Google’s brand verification is a free email confirmation from someone at your company, and it unlocks the checkmark. The TCR Aegis RCS vet is a paid $75-a-year check that clears your brand to run RCS campaigns on US carriers. You need both.
Google’s own review runs one to three business days, but a full US carrier launch usually takes several weeks to a few months, since each carrier reviews separately. Ekas is about clearing it on the first pass.
At the message level, not by much: rich text costs about what an SMS costs, and rich media about what MMS costs. The premium is the one-time verification and onboarding, roughly $700 to $1,000 to get a brand live in the first year. The pricing page has Ekas’s own plan.
Yes. Keep your provider. Ekas is the compliance layer that checks and fixes the agent before it’s submitted. We work with Twilio, Sinch, Infobip, Vonage, Bandwidth, and Telnyx.
Still have questions? Talk to us
Tell us how you send today, and we’ll show you what would stall your agent and how Ekas clears it before it reaches Google or the carriers.
See the full plan on pricing.