See how the Telnyx RCS API powers rich messaging with cards, carousels, and real-time flows in this hands-on demo breakdown.
Telnyx is bringing rich messaging into the hands of developers with our new RCS (Rich Communication Services) API. In our latest demo, product manager Barry Reynolds breaks down how the API works—highlighting key capabilities like media-rich cards, suggested replies, SMS fallback, and more.
This post recaps the features shown in the demo and explores how RCS empowers businesses to move beyond plain-text SMS into branded, interactive messaging that lives in the native messaging app.
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Before you send messages with the Telnyx RCS API, you’ll need to go through agent onboarding and brand approval. Once you're verified, we provide you with a bot_id, which serves as your sender identity—similar to the 'from' field in SMS.
Our RCS API aligns with Google's RBM spec while staying true to our v2 API standards across Telnyx products. Key fields in the request include:
The demo highlights four core capabilities of the Telnyx RCS API—each demonstrating how rich media, suggested actions, and structured message formats can elevate customer engagement. These examples illustrate how developers can turn simple alerts into interactive, brand-aligned conversations, all within the native messaging experience.
1. Standalone card This first example showcases a vertically oriented standalone card for the Telnyx merch store. It includes:
2. Carousel cards This example builds on the standalone concept by adding a swipeable carousel showcasing multiple products. Each card features:
This is ideal for e-commerce campaigns and product promotions.
3. Transactional messaging: delivery notifications Here, we explore a delivery update scenario:
This highlights how RCS can enable native customer service workflows.
4. Appointment reminders + rescheduling This flow demonstrates a scheduling interaction: a flow for a barber shop:
Every interaction shown in the video is powered by modular, flexible JSON payloads. Developers can:
And of course, Telnyx handles fallback to SMS automatically—so no reach is lost if a user doesn’t support RCS.
The Telnyx RCS API is now available, and we’re actively onboarding partners. To join:
