Derek: Hi my name is Derek Johnson with tatango.com.
Today, I'm gonna be walking you through a business RCS messaging demo from SnapTravel.
This was shot at Mobile World Congress 2018 by the GSMA.
If you wanna watch the original video, we'll link to it in the description below.
What I find interesting about this demo is SnapTravel actually compares the regular SMS
experience to the RCS business messaging experience.
So let's get started.
Hussein: Hi my name is Hussein.
I'm the CEO of SnapTravel and I'm here at MWC in Barcelona.
SnapTravel allows you to book great hotels over messaging.
So I'm gonna give you a quick demo.
If you're on our homepage, the first thing you do is you put in your city and dates.
Derek: And just to be clear, this has nothing do with messaging, this component, this is
their mobile website where he's entering this information into his phone.
Hussein: So let's say we're looking for a hotel in Barcelona March 5th to 6th.
And I click on the SMS button.
Now, what happens is I get these deals sent to me via text message.
So if I go in it says, " Let us show you the best deals we have in Barcelona."
Derek: So this is a basic SMS.
This is how the majority brands around the world right now are using SMS, it's usually
plain text with a link that then links out to, in this case, most likely, their mobile
website.
Hussein: March 5th to 6th.
"Back in a few seconds."
Now, what you can see is that this text came from a random phone number, it's 479-777-2362,
and you can see that it's just a plain text experience.
So in a few seconds, I'm gonna get some results and you'll see it's just plain text, emojis,
and a link.
Instead of receiving a regular SMS, I'm gonna receive an RCS version of that experience.
Derek: What's great is what he's showing you here is essentially the RCS experience is
coming through the same channel as the SMS experience.
So RCS doesn't require you on an Android device, iOS and Apple is not even supported yet, but
on the Android device it's coming through the same channel as an SMS message from, you
know, a brand, from your friends, from your family.
This is not requiring you to download another messaging app or download a completely new
app for this brand.
This is coming through your existing messaging channel.
Hussein: So you're gonna see now instead of it coming from a random phone number, it's
coming from SnapTravel, and you can see that SnapTravel is a verified account by Google.
Derek: Okay, there's a lot of stuff going on here, gonna go back a tiny bit.
So as you can see here, first off it says SnapTravel which he mentioned in the video
instead of a random phone number, five or six digit phone number or a long code depending
on what, you know, where he is and what he's using.
Now it says SnapTravel, so much better customer and consumer experience to have the brand
name displayed rather than just a random phone number, even if it's a five to six digit phone
number.
On the right-hand side, you'll see that little badge there.
That actually means it's been verified.
So similar to like a verification on Twitter or Facebook, it's essentially a third party
saying, "Yes, this is SnapTravel."
You can feel confident that you're talking to SnapTravel because you could think if someone
was trying to scam you, they could put SnapTravel in the header there and you'd think that you're
talking to SnapTravel and you might release information you wouldn't want them to have.
But, because it's verified and it says SnapTravel and it has that little verification thing
there, now you know and have confidence in chatting with that brand and that you're actually
chatting with the brand, not somebody trying to scam you.
On the second and third component here which is unique to RCS business messaging is the
color scheme and the logo.
So look around, you can see the color they've set this color.
This SnapTravel company has set this kind of yellowish color as their default color
in the messaging app.
So each brand will have their own different color, so Bank of America would be like red.
So it's gonna be a really cool experience because you're gonna be chatting with different
brands and you'll have a little bit of a different experience with each brand.
Now on the very left-hand side there, you'll also see that not only the header is kind
of this orange yellow color but so is the message and then there's also an icon, which
is their logo, the SnapTravel logo, which is not something you can currently do with
SMS or MMS.
Husein: An account by Google, so I have that identity built into the messaging.
And what I get...
Derek: I think he's gonna skip this but I think this is one of the best features of
RCS business messaging, is what we call a carousel.
So as you can see there, there's those little RCS rich cards, what they're called, but there's
multiple of them and they're actually kind of that aligned left to right so you can actually
swipe through these and you can have a certain amount of cards but it's a lot of amount of
cards.
And essentially a consumer can just kind of toggle through and swipe through all those
different cards.
And the cards can have videos, images, and then below it will have bold text and then
regular text and then can have links and things like quick replies and suggested actions.
You can see this could be really, really powerful.
Companies like SnapTravel or retail, restaurants, really every company.
I think this is gonna be a huge value add for them and why, you know, they're may be
more interested in RCS business messaging over the basic SMS or MMS message.
Hussein: ...back is actually a much richer experience.
So instead of just getting some text and emojis, I get carousel...
Derek: Okay, see how he's swiping through on the mobile phone going left to right and
seeing these different options, and he has a suggested action under each one, which is
"View Details" which will actually open up the mobile browser on the phone.
You can tell it's a suggested action because there's usually an icon by the the text there.
So "View Detail," there's a little mobile web icon, the world, and if you click on that,
it's going to open up the mobile web application on the phone.
But, beautiful experience just swiping, you know, through these different images and these
rich cards.
Hussein: ...hotel deals which I can scroll through.
I also have quick action buttons at the bottom.
So I can filter results, I can start a new search, I can even click on "Chat with an
Agent" and it allows me...connects me directly to human agent.
Essentially...
Derek: Interesting thing that he went through right there.
So there's the actions, which are...they'll take...you open up a phone call, open up maps,
they'll open up a website, an app.
If you are looking to have more of a chatbot experience, like a back and forth, you can
use what we call suggested replies.
And this is again an RCS business messaging term.
And what it is, it's a button, it looks like a button.
When you click on it, like let's say he was going through those where it said "Chat with
Agent," it looked like a button, when he clicks on it, it actually creates a brand new message
within the messaging channel and it sends it automatically to SnapTravel, they process
it and then send it back.
So as you can see here, he clicked the button that said "Chat with Agent," it then disappears,
all those buttons disappear, and the message is created with the message body saying "Chat
with Agent," and that's automatically sent off to SnapTravel, they process it and they
send it back and they sent back the message, "We've assigned one of your travel agent ninjas
to help you be right back."
So really cool way instead of being like, you know, "Hey, reply with, 'Chat with your
agent,'" like type it on your phone then click, you know, send, it just allowing you to click
the button and then everything else is handled for you from that point.
Hussein: ...RCS allows for a much richer experience than SMS, and is something that we're very
excited about and our customers will surely enjoy it.
Derek: One thing just to kind of point out here, look at the whole kind of experience
from top to bottom, this almost looks very app-like.
That's one thing that a lot of brands are looking at, they spend a lot of money on apps,
not very many consumers use that app, not many consumers download the app, but they
use messaging all the time.
So if they can have an app-like experience within something that they already use on
a day-to-day basis many times, hundreds of times a day, that could be a really, really
powerful thing and could be the reason why RCS messaging really takes off and really
cannibalizes a lot of mobile apps that are out there and the cost and the development,
the resources from a brand that go to mobile apps currently.
Hussein: Thank you.
Derek: So a great demo from Mobile World Congress that was done by the GSMA.
If you wanna find original video, we'll link to it in the description.
That was a RCS business messaging demo from SnapTravel.
My name is Derek Johnson, and I'm with tatango.com.