December 03, 2025
RCS Takes the Lead in Customer Communication This Black Friday
Black Friday inboxes and message feeds looked very different this year. Instead of receiving discount alerts, shoppers were scrolling through interactive cards, tapping product carousels, and exchanging two-way messages with brands inside their native messaging apps. That shift was driven by the rapid rise of Rich Communication Services (RCS), which emerged as the breakout channel for customer communication on Black Friday 2025.
New data from global cloud communications platform Infobip shows RCS usage surged 277% year-on-year on Black Friday, far outpacing growth across other customer messaging channels. Overall interactions on the platform increased 15% compared to 2024, confirming both the continued expansion of peak retail communications and the growing appetite for richer digital CX formats.
Bye SMS, Hello RCS
Long regarded as a next-generation upgrade to SMS, RCS moved firmly into the mainstream this season. Retailers used the channel to deliver branded messages, product galleries, interactive calls to action, and real-time two-way conversations, allowing shoppers to browse offers and resolve queries directly within their messaging apps rather than bouncing between links or support queues.
The approach reflects rising customer expectations for immediacy, clarity, and friction-free engagement during high-pressure trading periods.
When it comes to regions most fascinated with RCS, in Latin America, this technology climbed an extraordinary 464% year-on-year, while WhatsApp grew 46% and Email rose 61% as retailers blended conversational channels with established outreach tools.
Europe followed a similar pattern, with RCS up 361%, supported by growth across WhatsApp (162%), SMS (65%), and Voice (25%). In the Asia-Pacific region, Email led increases at 243%, alongside gains in Voice (84%) and WhatsApp (13%), highlighting a layered approach to serving diverse customer preferences.
RCS Connect the Dots
RCS’s rapid rise aligns with a broader CX problem across retail, which is that most customer journeys now span multiple channels, yet conversation continuity is still rare. 8×8 research shows over 70% of interactions move between channels, with each transition increasing the risk of drop-off as customers are forced to repeat themselves or restart conversations. This fragmentation remains one of the biggest sources of friction in modern customer journeys.
By enabling richer, persistent messaging rather than one-off SMS touchpoints, RCS is becoming a practical response to that challenge, allowing brands to keep context intact as shoppers move between discovery, promotions, service updates, and support, particularly valuable during peak trading periods like Black Friday, when speed and clarity directly influence conversion and satisfaction.
