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How to Send Proactive Messages with Rich Card via RCS

  • Updated

Index

  1. What is a Rich Card?
  2. Step-by-step guide to sending a proactive RCS message via the Portal

 

What is a Rich Card?

With Rich Cards, you can send a set of related information, media, or suggestions as a single unit. You can send advanced cards individually or in a carousel format. They can contain media, title text, description text, suggested replies, and suggested actions.

A Rich Card can include:

  • Media (image/GIF, video, or file)

  • Title text

  • Description text

  • Suggested replies and actions

     

Step-by-step Guide to Sending a Proactive Message with RCS – via Portal

1. Select the RCS channel and click the “Continue” button.

2. When the “New feature!” pop-up appears, click “Continue”.

3. On the next screen, you will see a single page with the entire flow to configure your new message. In the upper-right corner, select the “Send type”.

  • Individual: Message sent specifically to a single contact.

  • Bulk: Message sent to a group of contacts.

4. If you select “Bulk”, upload a .csv spreadsheet containing all contacts who will receive the message.

4.1. If you select “Individual”, you must enter the contact’s phone number and, optionally, the recipient’s name.

5. In the next section, select the message content format:

  • Plain text: text only, up to 160 characters, similar to an SMS.
  • Rich Card: rich content, images, buttons, carousel, etc.
  • Carousel: grouping of up to 10 Rich Cards in a single swipeable message.

 

Plain Text

6. The simplest messages are text-based. Text messages are best suited for communicating information without the need for visual elements, complex interaction, or replies.

An RBM (Rich Business Messaging) message with up to 160 UTF-8 characters is called a basic message. When sending a basic message, remember that characters are counted as 1 byte (UTF-8). If you send a message with special characters, such as emojis or multibyte character sets, each character may count as 2 to 4 UTF-8 characters or more.

 

Rich Card

7. If you select “Rich Card”, the “Media”, “Suggested Actions”, and “Quick Replies” formats will be displayed.

You can create your message using Media, supporting image, video, document, or dynamic formats.

Rich Cards can include multiple types of media, such as images, GIFs, videos, and PDF files. Rich Cards support several media formats.

 

Supported Image Types

  • JPEG/JPG
  • GIF
  • PNG

Supported Video Types

  • H.263
  • M4V
  • MP4
  • MPEG
  • MPEG-4
  • WebM

Supported File Types

  • PDF

Dynamic Content

  • JSON format

 

7.1. You can also create your message using Suggested Actions, such as making a phone call or opening a link.

Suggested actions make it easier to call customer support or redirect users to a website. You can add up to 4 actions, each with up to 25 characters.

 

7.2. You can also create Quick Replies by adding up to 4 buttons.

Quick Replies help users interact in ways that are easy to respond to. Unless the interaction requires a free-text response, use suggested replies. They are easier to process than free text and allow you to guide conversations along an ideal path. You can add up to 4 replies, each with up to 25 characters.

 

Carousel

8. If you select the “Carousel” option, you can send a message with a group of Rich Cards.

Rich Card carousels are ideal for showcasing multiple items, such as data plans or devices, allowing users to browse and compare different options within a single message. A carousel is ideal when you want to present a variety of options or enable exploration of related content.

As with a standalone Rich Card message, you can include suggested icons below a carousel to move the conversation forward, as well as media such as images and videos. In carousel format, sending documents such as PDFs is not allowed. Carousels can contain between 2 and 10 Rich Cards.

9. Next, select where the message should be routed:

  • Smart Contact: route to a specific event of a given smart contact.
  • Smart Contact with AI: route to a specific AI Agent for service.
  • Human Service: route the message to a specific human agent.

10. In the final section, configure the send settings according to your needs. Create a name for identification and add custom tags. If you do not enter a specific name, one will be created automatically.

Finally, select the “Send type”. You can send the message immediately (“Send now”) or schedule it for a specific date and time (“Schedule send”). To finish, click the “Send” button.

 

Limits

Rich Card titles are limited to 200 characters, while descriptions can have up to 2,000 characters.

Special characters, such as emojis or multibyte character sets, count as 2 to 4 characters or more.

The maximum Rich Card payload size is 250 KB.

 


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