RCC.07 – Advanced Communications Services and Client Specification

Version 17.0

This specification defines the overall interaction between an RCS client and the network as well as covering some network internal procedures to support that and enabling the interoperability between RCS networks as defined in GSMA PRD IR.90.

Compared to the previous version, it adds support Messaging Initiated Video Calls, defines RCS Video Chat as a WebRTC-based technical enabler for such calls that can act a complement or alternative to Video over LTE and provides a definition of capabilities and transport format for Rich Text Messages.

Furthermore it provides enablers to discover the codecs supported by other parties in the conversation allowing to use higher quality encoding formats when exchanging video, images and audio files. Next to that, this new version allows for a phased introduction of extended messaging features (reply, reaction, multiple reaction, etc.) by defining separate capabilities.

For Chatbots and business messaging, this new version provides efficiency improvements by combining the retrieval of the Chatbot Information with that of the Chatbot’s communication capabilities and if triggered by a deep link, the retrieval of a contextual welcome message. It also defines the use of streaming video as media element in a Rich Card, better controls over whether OpenURL Suggested Actions are opened in a webview, a dedidcated app if that is installed on the device or in the default web browser. Finally, it also extends the deep links capabilities to links using the sms:// scheme and adds more robustness to the Chatbot verification by extending the validation of the identity proof to the client.