Google RCS for Business vs Orbit by Devotel

Google RCS for Business lets brands send rich-media messages to customers on Android and iOS, including read receipts, analytics, and a Verified icon. Agents can send one-way notifications or support two-way conversations about transactions, customer service, promotions, and other business needs. Rich cards, media, and suggested interactions can guide users through conversations. Agents send messages through an API using HTTP requests with JSON payloads; configured webhooks deliver user messages and events. Agent logic can use a natural language understanding module such as Dialogflow to choose responses. Google lists one-time password, transactional, promotional, and multi-use agent categories, with rules that may vary by country. Businesses typically work with messaging partners to build and maintain agents, and launches require brand verification and approval by Google, carriers, or both. Carriers set rates through their rate cards; billing methods differ for conversational and non-conversational messages, and no fixed public price is listed. Unsupported devices receive a 404 response, so agents should use another channel such as SMS. RBM does not provide end-to-end encryption, and Google says it is not HIPAA compliant.

Orbit by Devotel provides an RCS API for sending rich business messages, including cards, carousels, and suggested replies or actions. It can check whether a recipient supports RCS and retry through SMS when RCS is unavailable, provided the organisation has enabled its fallback chain. Orbit describes a unified messaging platform spanning SMS, voice, video, WhatsApp, RCS, email, and additional channels. An RCS send can contain up to 11 suggestion chips, and a carousel can hold 2–10 cards. The Pay-as-You-Go plan has no monthly fee or minimums; sending is paid for with pre-pay credits. It includes typed Node and Web SDKs, signed webhooks, and a real-time analytics dashboard. The company says production data is processed in the EU, with its primary workload in Belgium and a disaster-recovery read replica in London. US-only, UK-only, and APAC-only residency are not offered. Orbit says its SOC 2 Type II audit is in planning and that it has not completed a third-party SOC 2 audit.