RCS Channel

1. Introduction

In order to set up the RCS channel, every Business Messenger app Instance Owner has to be registered as a partner with RCS Business Messaging.

After registration with RCS Business Messaging (RBM), for every Business Messenger Account an Agent has to be created. An Agent is a conversational entity that interacts with users by sending messages and reacting to users' responses. Users interact with Agents with an RCS-enabled messaging app, such as the Messages app, on their devices. Agents are managed through Google's RBM Admin (Business Communication) Console.

Every RBM Agent has to be launched in order to become publicly available.

2. Setting Up the Channel

The following instructions are for setting up the RCS channel for every Business Messenger Account.

2.1 How to Create an RBM Agent

To create new RCS Business Messaging (RBM) Agent please follow the steps:

1. Open the Business Communications Developer console and sign in with your RBM Platform Google account.

2. Click Create agent.

3. Enter your Agent's name.

4. Select your Agent's Region. Region determines where your Agent will operate from and where it will store its data.
   Note: You can't change your agent's region after you create your agent.

   More details about Agent's region please find in The agent's region section.

5. Determine the agent's Billing Category. Select the billing category that most closely matches the behavior of your agent logic.
   Note: You can change your agent's billing category before you launch your agent.

   More details about agent's billing category please find in The agent's Billing Category section.

6. Identify the agent's Use case. Each RBM agent is required to have a predefined use case that reflects the nature of the conversations it is intended to have with end users.
   Note: You can't change the use case after your agent has been submitted for launch.

   More details about agent's use cases please find in The agent's use case section.

7. Click Create agent button.

8. When your Agent is available, click your Agent's name to see an overview.

   

   Important: Here you can find Agent ID that you will need later for setting up the RCS channel in the Business Messenger app. You will also need Agent Name and Region.

9. Until you launch your Agent, it can only communicate with designated test devices.

   RCS works only on Android phones with Google Messages app as default SMS client.

   To communicate with an unlaunched RBM Agent, a test device needs to be RCS-enabled. How to check the RCS status of your device, please find in Check the RCS status section.

   To add a test devices, select Devices in the left navigation and add number(s).

   

   After adding a number, an invitation will be sent to the number. On a test device, the invitation has to be accepted from the received message. Status of a phone number will be changed from 'Pending' to 'Ready', and now you can send test message by selecting this option from the Devices section.

   Details about Test Devices please find on How to set up test devices page.

10. When you finish testing your Agent, the RBM Agent will still need to be verified by RBM, in order to enable sending messages to all phone numbers. To start the verification process, select Launch from the side menu.

    Agents launching is very specific for RBM/RCS and related to mobile operators. Please find details on how to launch an Agent on Launch an agent page.

For details about RCS Agents, please visit RCS Business Messaging agents page.

2.2 Setting Up the RCS Channel in the Business Messenger App

From the Business Messenger app Settings > Channels page by clicking on the Edit Channels button , a new window will be opened where the RCS channel can be set up.

• Region - region determines where your Agent operates from and where it stores its data. Select the region you already set when creating the Agent for this BM account.

• Agent ID - the Agent ID is a string provided by Google RBM console while setting up the Agent. It can be found on the Agent overview page.

• Agent Name - the Agent Name is a name of your RCS Agent defined in RBM Console.

By clicking on the Save button, a new pop-up window will appear with additional details for channel setup, Webhook URL and Client Token.

To complete the RCS channel setup, you need to setup manually Webhook URL and Client Token for your RBM Agent.

Open the Business Communications Developer console and sign in with your RBM Platform Google account.

Select your Agent, and in the left navigation, click Integrations.

Click Configure. In the opened window configure your webhook by adding the Webhook endpoint URL and Client token you've got from the Business Messenger app. Click the Verify button.

The Business Messenger RCS channel details will be presented on the Channels page in the Business Messenger app.

2.3 Setting Up the Web Opt-in/Opt-out Forms

The Business Messenger Opt-in/Opt-out Web Forms is a mechanism for obtaining a contact’s opt-in/opt-out. For the RCS channel it is not possible to use opt-in based on a keyword, since the businesses can not be reached via RCS, before they reach a contact. But before all, a contact’s RCS opt-in should be obtained.

Opt-in/Opt-out Web Forms can be created in the BM Opt-in/Opt-out Manager > Web section.

With a Web form, a user can subscribe/unsubscribe i.e. opt-in/opt-out for a campaign. After a user receives a campaign message, he can send a response. The user's response will be received in the Easy Dialog app.

2.4 Setting Up the Opt-in/Opt-out Rules

Opt-in/Opt-out Rules should be created in the BM Opt-in/Opt-out Manager > RCS section.

Creating Opt-in/Opt-out rules is very important. Without defined Opt-in/Opt-out rules and configured keywords, no contacts will be stored, since there is no definition about if and how to store new contacts.

If the Easy Dialog default contact list is set in the Default Settings section, which is recommended, all the contacts that send a message to the Business Messenger app by using RCS channel, will be saved in the Easy Dialog default contact list.

3. Updating the Channel Configuration

From the BM Settings > Channels page by clicking on the Edit Channels button in the top left corner of the screen, a new window will be opened where the Channels configuration data are presented.

For the RCS channel, you can update an Agent details if it is needed.