IMImobile SA, part of IMImobile PLC – a leading global cloud communications software and solutions provider – has joined Google’s Early Access Program for RCS (Rich Communication Services) business messaging offering in Africa.

RCS will allow millions of businesses in Africa to make use of more interactive messaging features such as branding and business verification, suggested reply buttons, rich card carousels and end-to-end payments.

IMImobile PLC, who joined the Google’s Early Access Program for RCS Business Messaging in 2017 will be working through its African operations, IMImobile SA, based in Johannesburg to offer RCS business messaging to the wider African continent. For Google, working with mobile messaging specialists, like IMImobile SA, helps with the roll out of RCS business messaging across Africa, a continent with more than one billion people.

Devon Meerholz, Chief Creative & Operations Officer at IMImobile SA commented: “We are very excited to offer RCS Business Messaging to our African customer base. RCS is a natural evolution of the traditional SMS communication and allows enterprises to significantly enhance mission critical communication, notifications and alerts. As a leading provider of two-way messaging solutions, processing 42 billion messages annually, we expect a massive acceleration and growth of RCS in 2019, and our enterprise customers will benefit from having access to RCS Business Messaging through IMImobile SA.”

According to recent Mobile Squared report, 63% of brands and businesses have already factored RCS into their future marketing and service communication activities. For IMImobile SA, RCS adds another promising communication channel to the evolving messaging ecosystem (alongside SMS, Facebook Messenger, Twitter DM, WeChat and more) which can significantly enhance customer experience, service and interaction.

Over the next month, IMImobile SA will drive awareness for RCS Business Messaging, test different use cases with clients and work with Google to support roadmap innovation and adoption. For further information about RCS Business Messaging please contact contactus@imimobile.com.