Once your RCS message has been created, you are ready to design the content.
For more info on how to create an RCS message and the RCS properties, check out the corresponding topics.
Designing the RCS
Once an RCS (Rich Communication Services) message is created, the design canvas on the right-hand side allows you to define its content. There are three types of RCS messages you can choose from:
- Text — Contains only a text message.
- Rich card — Can include a title, message content, media (image or video), and/or action buttons.
- Carousel — A collection of up to 11 rich cards.
Note: At any time you can decide to convert to a different type, for example from carousel to a single rich card or even text. When downgrading from rich card to text, the media assets and buttons are hidden but can be restored when switching back to rich card.
Designing a text RCS
1. Enter your text. Type your message in the RCS content field. As you type, a toolbar appears for personalization.
2. Personalize the message:
- Click the Personalization or Emoticon icon to insert elements at the cursor location.
- Use the Generate text with AI icon for assistance with message content.
- Click the Links icon to add tracked links
3. Character limit:
- A maximum of 4000 characters is allowed.
- Below the input box, the used/max character count and remaining characters are displayed.
Note:
RCS content can contain personalization fields, emoticons as well as expressions and tracked shortlinks.
4. Define a fallback SMS. This will be sent when the RCS message cannot be delivered. It uses the same channel endpoint as the RCS message.
Designing a rich card RCS
A rich card RCS can include title, content, media, and buttons.
1. Select rich card from the RCS type drop-down.
2. Set a title. This is displayed above the message content.
3. Define the RCS content.
See Designing a Text RCS for details.
4. Choose from Image or Video as type of media.
5. Select or enter the Media asset. Click the ... to choose an asset from the library. Alternatively, enter an external URL manually.
6. When Video is selected, choose the Media Thumbnail . Click the ... to choose an asset from the library. Alternatively, you can also enter the URL for the thumbnail. Thumbnails are optional.
Note: The behavior of Video media is as follows:
Video only: Video is shown.
Video and thumbnail: Thumbnail with play button is shown.
7. Add one or more Buttons. When designing a rich card RCS, you can add up to four buttons to the message. Click Add button. The following is displayed:
Every button can be assigned a link and a label.
Link — For each button a link can be selected from the drop-down or a new one can be created. This link defines what happens after clicking the button. There are 4 types of links:
- External URL — The recipient is redirected to a specific external URL
- Define in journey — The redirect is defined in the journey itself, after the onclick event.
- Existing journey — The recipient is redirected to an existing journey.
- Reply — The recipient can reply to the message by clicking the button. This type of link requires postback data to be specified. When a contact clicks such a link, this associated postback data can be set as a keyword for the inbound event, enabling the system to capture and act on the recipient's reply.
When defining the postback data:
- ensure each response value is unique to avoid confusion with other inbound events.
- for multi-word responses, use hyphens (e.g., order-confirmed) to treat the entire string as a single keyword
For all above options, a shortlink must be created first.
Once the links exist, these can be added to the button as explained here.
Button label — The text shown on the button.
Note: If multiple languages are used for your message, you must also click on
the Language drop-down menu to
enter the text for the other languages.
Design a carousel RCS
A carousel RCS includes up to 11 rich cards.
1. Fill out the properties of the first rich card as explained in the section above. You can collapse the properties panel for a rich card by clicking the arrow.
2. For every new rich card, click Add rich card. A new rich card properties panel is added.
Note: It is possible to change the order of the rich cards and hence change their position in the carousel. This is done by hovering the reorder icon and dragging and dropping the rich card to the new position.
Previewing the message
For RCS of type carousel, you can scroll through the different versions using the scroll bar at the bottom of the preview:
Links in RCS content and buttons
Links can be added in 2 ways to an RCS message:
- Manually, by entering the URL directly into the content of the RCS. These links are not tracked (and so no reporting on it) and not shortened.
- Via the Links section. These links are tracked and are always shortened. Shortlinks can be used in the body of the RCS message as well as in the button of a rich card.
Add shortlinks to RCS content
Add a link to your RCS content using one of the following options :
1) Click on the + icon to the right of the link in the Links section. The link is automatically added at the end of the RCS content. Cut and paste the link to the correct position if needed
2) Click on the link icon that appears while typing in the RCS content field. The link is then added to the RCS content at the location of your mouse cursor. By default the most recently configured link is added to the message.
When the link is added, a shortLink expression (eg.[%shortLink(100)%]) is used. The message design on the left shows a dummy short URL (eg. https://short.slgnt.io/ABCDEF).
Note: A dummy URL is used, as the actual URL shortening only happens at Journey execution send time.
The preview of your RCS message, also shows this link as such.
Note: The Short URL expires after 90 days.
Add shortlinks to a button
Click the drop-down next to the button link field. A list of available links is shown from where you can select one.
Once the buttons have been designed, they are visible in the message preview, one below the other
Now that the message is ready, you need to publish it to make it available for use in a journey.
