Creating RCS Templates

RCS templates are reusable message blueprints that you can select in campaigns and journeys to send your users RCS messages. Templates support rich media, such as images and videos.

You can personalize message text with user profile data, event data, data feeds, snippets, and Handlebars merge parameters.

# In this article

# Before you begin

To create your first RCS template, your project needs the following prerequisites:

• At least one RCS sender in a launched state (Partially approved, Update required, or Approved).
• At least one RCS message type.

# Permissions

To create an RCS template, you need the Create and Manage Templates and Creative Library project permission. See RCS Permissions for the full list of RCS-related permissions.

# Creating an RCS template

To create an RCS template you can reuse across campaigns and journeys:

1. Go to Content > Templates.
2. Click New template > RCS.
3. Give your template a name that makes it easy to find. This field has a 150-character limit.
4. Click Create template.

You can also create a template while configuring an RCS tile in a journey draft. For other ways to work with templates, see Working with Templates.

# Configuring an RCS template

To update template details such as message type, verified sender, message text, and link settings, open the template and configure the options in the Details panel.

To update these options, click Edit details. As you make changes, the preview on the right updates. When you finish editing, click Save or Cancel.

The Details panel is organized into three sections: Sending information, Content, and Links.

# Message type

The Iterable message type to associate with this template. Message type affects who receives campaigns based on this template and how opt-outs are handled. Be sure to select a message type that aligns with the sender's registered use case. See Use case.

# Verified sender

The RCS sender that delivers this message. Recipients see this sender's display name, logo, and branding in their messaging app.

The dropdown lists senders in Partially approved, Update required, or Approved status.

# Missing senders

If you do not see a sender you expect in the template drop-down menu, check its status on the sender detail page. Senders in Draft, Syncing, or Pending do not appear. Senders in Resubmission required are unavailable until you resubmit them and they return to a launched state.

# RCS template types

In the RCS template type section, select the type of message you want to send:

• Text — A message with optional buttons for user interaction.
• Card — A single card with media, a title, a description, and buttons.
• Carousel — Two to 10 cards that users can swipe through in a single message.

# Text template

Text templates are used to send simple messages with optional buttons.

# Message

For text RCS templates, the message field supports:

• Plain text and emoji
• Links (enable Shorten and track to use shortlinks)
• Handlebars expressions and snippets

While you edit, a character count appears below the Message label. Text messages can contain up to 2,500 characters.

# Inserting a snippet in the message

To insert a snippet at the cursor's current location, click the insert snippet icon below the message field and select a snippet. For more information, see Adding a snippet to a template.

# Adding Handlebars in the message

You can use Handlebars in the message body to pull in dynamic data and craft personalized message content. For more information, see Handlebars overview.

When you add Handlebars to a message, the final rendered length can vary from the count shown in the template editor, and from one user to another.

# Card and Carousel templates

A card can include media, a title, a description, and buttons. A Card template contains one card. A Carousel template contains two to 10 cards.

Use these limits when you build cards:

RCS clients can render and crop media differently. Preview your template on both device styles before you send it.

You can select media from Iterable's Content Library or by pasting a self-hosted URL. Iterable supports JPG, GIF, PNG, H263, MP5, MPEG, MPEG4, and WEBM. You can add a thumbnail URL for video media.

# Buttons

All RCS templates support buttons. The total number of buttons you can add depends on where you use them:

• Below the message — Up to 11 buttons. Text, Card, and Carousel templates all support these buttons.

• On a card — Click Add card button to add up to four buttons per card. A Carousel template can include up to 10 cards, so a carousel supports up to 40 card buttons in total.

There are three types of button actions:

• Open website — Opens a URL in a browser or web view. If you enable Shorten and track, Iterable logs an RCS Click event when a recipient taps this button.

  • URLs can contain up to 2,000 characters.
  • For Text templates, links in the message body (including deep links) must be a universal link or use https:// or http:// and not a custom URL.
  • For Card and Carousel templates, media links on open website buttons are explicitly validated and must start with https:// or http://. Custom schemes like myapp:// will fail validation.

• Call phone — Starts a call to the phone number you provide. Iterable does not log an event when a recipient taps this button.

• Quick reply — Sends the button text as a reply to your sender. Iterable logs this interaction as an RCS Reply (rcsReceived) event, which you can use to enter or branch a Journey.

  NOTE

  To create an automated conversational experience, add Quick Reply buttons with various options to recommend a limited set of user responses. Then, create a Journey to handle each response.

# Data feeds

Data feeds let you fetch user-specific data from external sources and use it to personalize your templates.

To enable data feeds, check Connect data feeds for dynamic template creation. Then, select an existing data feed from the dropdown, or click Add a new data feed.

Additional options are available when you enable data feeds. For more information about data feeds settings and how to use them in templates, see Using data feeds in templates.

# Shorten and track

Shorten all links included in the message. Shortlinks help you fit more content in the message and track whether recipients click your links.

When you enable this option, you can also select a tracking domain. If your project has custom tracking domains configured, they appear in the dropdown. Otherwise, Iterable uses its default domain.

RCS uses the same link shortening feature as SMS and WhatsApp. For more details, see Link Shortening and Click Tracking for RCS, SMS, and WhatsApp.

# Google analytics

Requires Shorten and track. Appends utm_source, utm_campaign, and utm_medium parameters to links in your messages for Google Analytics tracking.

To learn more, see:

• Link shortening and click tracking
• Integrating Iterable with Google Analytics
• Google's Collect campaign data with custom URLs

# Link parameters

Requires Shorten and track. Custom URL parameters (also called UTM parameters) that Iterable adds to links in your message.

Use link parameters to track custom metrics with analytics providers other than Google Analytics.

https://www.example.com/?campaignId={{campaignId}}

For more information, see Link parameters.

# Adding locales to an RCS template

Use locales to define the content this template uses for users in different locales. This feature does not translate content for you, but provides a place to put localized message text.

To add locales to an RCS template, go to the top right corner of the template and click the language dropdown. From this drop-down menu, you can see the active locales for the template and add new ones.

For more information, see Creating Content in Multiple Languages.

# Previewing an RCS template

After you configure your template, preview it to confirm that the message renders correctly with user data, data feeds, snippets, and all locales.

# Using the design preview pane

While you edit template details, the preview pane on the right shows how your message appears on a device. This preview includes text messages, cards, and carousels. Use the controls at the bottom of the preview to:

• Toggle between iOS and Android device styles
• Switch the preview type between Message, Notification, and Contact

The preview updates as you edit template details.

# Previewing with user data

To see how your template renders for a specific user profile:

1. With the template open, click Preview.
2. Enter the email address of a user in your project and click Load user data.
3. To preview with a data feed loaded, click Load data feeds. You can edit the loaded data to test different values without changing the data feed itself.
4. Click Exit preview to return to the template page.

For more information on previewing templates with data, see Previewing templates.

# Sending a test message

Before sending a test message, ensure that you have user profiles ready with the phoneNumber value set, linked to a device that can receive RCS messages.

Template proofs are not the same as sender-page test numbers. Use sender-page test numbers while the sender is in Draft, before you submit for approval. See RCS Registration: Testing a Sender.

After the sender is launched, send proofs from the template. Proofs require a launched sender. Iterable does not apply subscription suppression to proof sends, so the recipient does not need to be subscribed to the template's message type.

To send a test message (proof) to a test user in your project:

1. Open the template and click Send test message.
2. Select from the dropdown:
   • To yourself
     • This option triggers an RCS test message to send to your Iterable user (with the email address you're logged in with).
   • To an internal list
     • This option triggers an RCS test message to send to a user in an internal list. Select the list from the dropdown.
   • As random users...
     • This sends a test message to the email or userID you specify, but with the message's data taken from a randomly selected user. Select a list from the dropdown to specify the list to use for the random user. This helps when you are using robust user data in the test message and do not have the same data in your internal user profile. Message recipients are capped at 50 to prevent accidentally sending to a production list.
   • To another user
     • This sends a test message to up to 50 users with the email or userID you specify.

# Viewing template version history

You can view the version history of a template by clicking View version history in the bottom of the template next to the Modified date.

This opens a modal with a list of all the versions of the template, including the date and time of the modification, the user who modified it, and the changes made.

To view a version comparison, select two versions from the list and click Compare. You can only compare two versions at a time.

You can also revert to a previous version by clicking the Restore button next to the version you want to revert to.

# Next steps

After you create and configure your template, you can:

• Send an RCS Campaign
• Send RCS from a Journey