When trying to engage your target audience, you need to think beyond just text. The latest mobile messaging channels allow you to do just that. How? They made it possible for you to create and deliver an immersive customer experience – interactive, personalized, and timed perfectly to capture attention.
With over four billion active monthly users across the top three messaging apps in 2024, multimedia messengers have become crucial for brand communication. Rich Communication Services (RCS) and Over-the-Top (OTT) messaging apps are at the forefront of this new approach to customer engagement. While both offer dynamic ways to spark customer interaction, they have unique strengths. These strengths make them suitable for different use cases.
In this article, we will dive into the key differences and similarities between the two. By doing so, we will shed light on how they can drive impactful, targeted communication for today’s savvy marketers.
What is RCS?
Rich Communication Services (RCS) is an advanced messaging protocol designed to enhance and eventually replace SMS by incorporating features commonly found in modern messaging apps. Developed as a successor to SMS, RCS allows businesses to send interactive, media-rich messages directly to users’ phones’ native messaging applications. As such, it doesn’t require the user to download any additional software.
The channel offers capabilities like high-resolution images, videos, product carousels, action buttons, and chatbots, facilitating a way more engaging and interactive user experience than most of the other commonly used channels.
Many globally recognized brands have successfully integrated RCS communication into their strategies, leveraging its rich features to boost customer engagement and drive conversions. For instance, companies like Subway and Nespresso have utilized RCS to create personalized, interactive campaigns that hit the mark with their audiences. These success stories highlight the potential of RCS to transform business messaging.
Over-the-Top (OTT) messaging apps are internet-based, socially-oriented platforms that enable users to send messages, make voice and video calls, and share media without relying on traditional SMS or MMS services. Popular examples include WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, and Viber. These applications operate over the internet, allowing users to communicate across borders without incurring additional charges.
The global adoption of OTT messaging apps has been remarkable. In the first quarter of 2024, 94.5% of internet users worldwide accessed online chatting and messaging apps on a monthly basis. Their popularity stems from features like group chats, multimedia sharing, end-to-end encryption, and the ability to integrate with other services, offering a comprehensive communication experience that goes beyond basic text messaging.
Choosing between RCS and OTT for business messaging
Both Rich Communication Services and OTT messaging applications provide business owners with a wealth of opportunities. With their growing popularity and straightforward implementation, they make reaching and engaging potential customers fairly easy. But with both options available, how should businesses decide which one is right for their needs?
When selecting the optimal communication channel for your brand, it’s essential to look beyond its base features. While both platforms enable the delivery of rich, interactive messages, the choice between them should be guided by factors such as audience reach and location, user experience, security, and integration capabilities. Understanding these elements will help you better align your messaging strategy with specific business objectives. It will also allow you to better cater to audience preferences.
User numbers
When assessing mobile messaging platforms for business, it’s best to start at their user base. According to Priori Data, as of 2024, WhatsApp leads with over 2 billion monthly active users, making it the most popular messaging app globally. Facebook Messenger follows with approximately 1.3 billion users, while Telegram has grown to 950 million users. Viber, although smaller, maintains a significant market presence with around 850 million users. These figures showcase just how extensive the reach of OTT messaging apps is. They also prove the potential of these platforms to provide your brand with access to large, engaged audiences for targeted messaging campaigns.
💡 However, while the monthly active users metric provides a snapshot of a platform’s current reach, examining monthly download figures offers insights into emerging trends and shifting user preferences.
For instance, according to Statista, in July 2024, Telegram led with over 48 million downloads, indicating a surge in new users. WhatsApp followed closely with approximately 46 million downloads, while Facebook Messenger and Snapchat each garnered around 26 million downloads.
These statistics suggest that while WhatsApp maintains a vast user base, Telegram is experiencing rapid growth. This shift could influence marketers aiming to tap into expanding audiences, especially those who may be particularly active on a specific platform.
Aside from the OTT messaging apps, RCS is also experiencing significant growth as a business messaging channel. Often considered a “sleeper” in terms of users, RCS communication strongly benefits from being available by default via the built-in messaging application on all recent Android devices. With iPhone compatibility expanding, as well as the number of countries with RCS coverage growing, the channel has the potential reach that rivals the most popular OTT messengers on the market.
According to Mobilesquared, this widespread availability has contributed to a 36.3% growth in RCS business messaging users over the past year. Now reaching nearly 30% of smartphone users worldwide, RCS is becoming a popular choice among brands aiming for more interactive and engaging customer communication. The following graph provides a closer look at the rise in RCS business messaging users, highlighting its share of unique mobile users and the channel’s rising popularity.
According to Mobilesquared, the number of people who use RCS business messaging has been on the rise.
Geographical specificity
Another important factor that you need to consider when choosing between RCS communication and OTT messaging apps is geographical specificity. While both channels offer broad reach, OTT messaging apps often have unique popularity spikes in particular regions, influenced by local preferences, accessibility, and market penetration.
For example, certain OTT apps dominate in specific countries or continents, making them ideal for targeting audiences in those areas. Understanding these geographical trends can help marketers select the platform that aligns best with their target market’s usage habits, ensuring their messages reach the right audience in the most effective way.
💡 Despite leading the OTT messenger pack already, WhatsApp is still predicted to grow its European user base at least through 2029.
User age and gender
Understanding the demographic profiles of messaging platforms is crucial for planning effective mobile messaging campaigns. As of the first quarter of 2024, WhatsApp’s user base comprised approximately 52.2% men and 47.7% women. This relatively balanced gender distribution suggests broad appeal across both sexes.
In contrast, Facebook Messenger’s global user demographics indicate that the app is slightly more popular among men, with 55.2% male users and 44.8% female users. Telegram also exhibits a male-dominated user base, consisting of 57% men and 43% women.
Age demographics may further influence your platform selection. WhatsApp’s largest user group falls within the 26 to 35 age range, accounting for 27% of its global users. Similarly, Facebook Messenger sees its highest usage among individuals aged 25 to 34, representing 32.5% of its user base. Telegram’s user distribution is also skewed towards younger audiences, with over half of its users aged between 25 and 44 years.
Native reach advantage
Now, there’s one more crucial issue to address in this discussion. A major advantage that RCS holds over OTT messaging apps is its ability to grab the user’s attention by utilizing the phone’s default messaging app. This integration with the native messaging system means that RCS messages appear alongside traditional SMS, making them difficult for recipients to miss or ignore.
For marketers, this is huge. Unlike OTT apps, where users may set varying preferences or even ignore notifications, RCS messages have a consistent presence across all compatible Android devices and an increasing number of iOS devices. This ensures that rich media messages reach their intended target audience, regardless of its preferred OTT app.
For businesses targeting a broad mobile user base, RCS marketing is an all-encompassing solution. It effectively cuts through the noise to guarantee visibility.
💡 Considering the factors like the growing number of operators who support RCS globally, as well as the rising compatibility with iOS devices, the market share of RCS will undoubtedly grow, allowing marketers to further capitalize on its capabilities.
Strong and weak points of both RCS business messaging and OTT messengers
We want to help you weigh the options between RCS and popular OTT messaging apps. Because of that, we created the table below. It provides a concise comparison of the key characteristics, strengths, and limitations of both of these communication channels. This overview captures essential factors – from user demographics to reach and engagement potential – to offer a balanced look at how each platform can fit into your business messaging strategy.
Channel
User base
Demographics
Reach potential
Unique features
Weaknesses
RCS
~2.85 billion globally in 2025 (with growing adoption).
Broad, with a tendency toward Android users.
High, as it uses the phone’s default messaging app.
Limited iOS compatibility so far, dependent on carrier support.
WhatsApp
~2 billion monthly active users.
Balanced gender ratio, popular among ages 26–35.
High global reach, particularly in Europe and Latin America.
End-to-end encryption, multimedia sharing, popular with businesses.
Limited customization for business messaging, dependency on user app installation.
Facebook Messenger
~1.3 billion monthly active users.
Slightly more male users, highest usage among ages 25–34.
High, particularly in North America and Southeast Asia.
Seamless integration with Facebook, rich media, group chat.
Privacy concerns, lower adoption in some regions.
Telegram
~950 million monthly active users.
Skews slightly male, strong in ages 25–44.
Growing, with rapid adoption trends.
Large groups, privacy focus, multimedia, bot integration.
Not as widely adopted as WhatsApp, some security concerns.
Viber
~850 million monthly active users.
Mixed, strong presence in Eastern Europe and parts of Asia.
Moderate, with niche regional popularity.
Multimedia messaging, VoIP, community features.
Limited global reach, dependency on app installation.
The future outlook for the messaging market
Both RCS and OTT messengers are significantly transforming business communication, offering a rich array of interactive features that enable two-way conversational messaging. These platforms allow brands to create rich messaging experience that capture customer attention and foster engagement.
Looking to the future, RCS is likely to emerge as the superior option for many businesses. Its growing market coverage and the benefit of not needing third-party software to work make it highly accessible to users. With seamless integration into native messaging systems and a suite of features specifically addressing the business needs of modern businesses, Rich Communication Services present a compelling option for widespread and effective customer outreach.
Nonetheless, OTT messaging apps will continue to play a vital role in communication strategies. Their unique features and popularity within certain demographics allow you to creatively target niche and segmented audiences. Making these platforms a part of your operations can enhance your reach and really help you get through to users who prefer these specific apps.
Conclusion
All in all, both RCS and Over-The-Top messaging apps offer valuable opportunities for businesses. By understanding their unique strengths and integrating them thoughtfully into your communication strategy, you can maximize engagement, generate conversions, and drive impactful, targeted conversations with your audience.
Whichever channel you’ll decide is best for you, our team is here to ensure your campaigns are set up for success. Using MessageFlow will help you reach your audience effectively, maximizing engagement and delivery rates. Contact us to get started on your next messaging campaign and take your brand’s communication strategy to the next level.
Choose the perfect one-stop-shop for your omnichannel communication
