After Vivo took the lead in completing RCS adaptation for iPhones in September 2025, Claro and TIM have also accelerated the rollout of Rich Communication Services (RCS) on Apple devices. TIM has launched its beta pilot. At this stage, users need to manually enable the feature in Apple Messages settings, and automatic activation will be implemented once testing concludes. Claro plans to launch RCS for iPhones by the end of Q1 2026. Neither operator has officially confirmed this timeline publicly.
Google’s Brazil RCS business lead stated that once all three major carriers finish deployment, Brazil will have a total of 185 million RCS-enabled devices, with a scale close to WhatsApp. Brazil is already the world’s highest-revenue market for RCS, with 4.7 billion RCS messages sent monthly.
On the A2P enterprise business front, the industry is vigorously promoting RCS adoption across tourism, debt collection, retail, healthcare and other sectors. Compared with traditional SMS, RCS supports multimedia content, verified blue business identity and comprehensive data statistics, helping some enterprises reduce customer acquisition costs. Google is also planning multiple new RCS capabilities: triggering RCS conversations via native Google Search, RCS short links and QR codes, and paid RCS advertisements through Google Ads. However, the ecosystem is not fully mature. Research shows only one quarter of chatbot vendors have developed RCS chatbots, far lower than WhatsApp’s 93%.
