Google steps towards unified messaging – who’s next in the race?

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Google’s play in the messaging space is an intriguing one and certainly something that taps into the psyche of the 21st century eclectic communicator. Three quarters of all smartphone owners today use multiple messaging services simultaneously, alongside SMS, a subconscious strategy that allows them to communicate cheaply and efficiently, all the while fully benefitting from rich features and service quality. Google’s unified approach, enabling interworking across multiple services is a powerful move, in line with an increasing user demand for a unified messaging experience.

Directly competing with Facebook Home and iChat, the key application of Google ‘Hangout’ is the “Follow Me” tool, whereby your presence is recognised and your messages and notifications are updated according to the device/application you are using. Acision’s own consumer research indicated that 62% of users were in favour of a messaging service which allowed them to receive a message on any device, with a further 44% confirming that a presence feature, capable of directing notifications to the device in use, were an attractive concept. This is a mantra that Google’s move into the cross platform messaging space clearly recognises.

However, the reality today is that operators continue to stand in a far superior position than any other OTT provider as their networks offer the only ubiquitous messaging service, capable of reaching over 6 billion mobile devices. Our research also revealed that 78% of participants surveyed are interested in an operator-led cross platform messaging service which would allow them to send SMS, MMS and IP messages from one single consolidated messaging application, working across multiple devices and interworking across all messaging services and social network applications. Launches like this only serve to highlight the opportunity for carriers to launch one consolidated messaging app – via Rich Communication Services (RCS) or other rich messaging apps – which combines all the requirements consumers expect today.

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Rich Messaging, Richer Life

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Over the last 12 months, we have witnessed the momentum build around the GSMA’s Rich Communication Suite of services (RCS), as operators around the world start to roll it out under the consumer brand ‘joyn’. Operator-led Rich Messaging and RCS services could mean another shift in the way we communicate, providing the ability to chat and share information across SMS, MMS, RCS and IP messages via one single consolidated messaging app, which works across multiple devices and interworks across all messaging services and social network applications.

Today, there is no single application on the market that meets all consumers messaging requirements across cost, rich features and service quality which works across any platform, any device at any time, and operators are in a unique position to provide this, with solutions like Acision’s BMSC, combining all the requirements consumers expect and delivering a superior user experience. In February this year, our own UK consumer messaging research* found that 78% of participants surveyed expressed a positive interest in an operator service such as this, with the right pricing.

To bring this type of Rich Messaging service to life, the team at Acision has created a fun and quirky video to showcase how a consolidated, cross platform messaging service can be used to the full in everyday living – by providing an enriched and enhanced user experience whereby any message can be delivered over any network, anytime, and over any device. The video also demonstrates that users view “messages” as “messages” – regardless of content or delivery channel.

Follow Dan as we see how this rich messaging service helps him with his property search, gain advice from friends via group chat, send photos of prospective properties instantly, share videos of activities with new friends directly to their social communities such as Facebook and even helps ease communication with a possible new love interest!


*Conducted by Vanson Bourne in Janaury 2013, the research is Acision’s second comprehensive study on the mobile messaging landscape. It is based on interviews with 1000 Smartphone devices in the UK. To view the full press release of Acision’s UK consumer research, please click here.

Facebook phones “home”

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With the release of ‘Facebook Home’ application, Facebook’s latest mobile play represents one of the more radical tweaks in mobile messaging to come from a major company in years. One of the game-changing features of this new app is its ability to receive SMS notifications within Facebook’s Chat Heads ‘Home’ messaging functionality, yet another indication that Facebook believes its future lies on the mobile phone rather than the desktop.For Facebook, this is a step to owning the smartphone experience of its users, putting messaging at the centre of this. While the app pulls together Facebook mail and chat messages with text messages into a consolidated conversation, such an application does not go the whole way to offering a truly cross-platform messaging service.

So while this is another step forward for the messaging ecosystem, there is still more opportunity to advance the messaging experience further. Our recent consumer research revealed that that 78% of participants surveyed are interested in an operator-led cross platform messaging service which would allow them to send SMS, MMS and IP messages from one single consolidated messaging app, which works across multiple devices and interworks across all messaging services and social network applications.  In comparison to mobile operators, Facebook is still relatively new to the mobile landscape. Today there is no single application, that meets all consumers messaging requirements across cost, rich features and service quality which works across any platform, any device at any time. Given the operator’s customer relationships, network infrastructure, ability to interwork across messaging platforms and control over quality of experience – mobile operators are well placed to offer a single rich, unified messaging service.

The opportunity for carriers is to launch one consolidated messaging app – via Rich Communication Services (RCS) or other rich messaging apps – which combines all the requirements consumers expect, and delivers a superior user experience.  This, in turn, strengthens customer loyalty and unlocks new revenue opportunities for operators by offering value add and premium services which can be monetised.

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German Operators ‘joyn’ Forces

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Following a week where much focus was on RCS during Mobile World Congress, Deutsche Telekom announced the launch of joyn to its 35 million mobile users in Germany last week.

This comes as somewhat of a surprise, as we last reported at the end of January that Deutsche Telekom had said they were delaying their launch of joyn “indefinitely” due to technical issues. Certainly good news to see they have overcome these issues and in a shorter timeframe than expected.

Deutsche Telekom is now the second operator to offer joyn in Germany, along with the country’s other largest carrier Vodafone, who launched their service in August 2012. Telefónica also plan to launch Joyn in the market later this year, at which point the service will then be available to over 80 per cent of all mobile customers in Germany – which is essential to make the service a real contender against popular OTT apps in the region.

Launched as ‘joyn by Telekom’ initially as an Andriod application, the iOS equivalent is due to go live on Apple’s AppStore in the coming weeks. While it is currently only available as an application to download, Deutsche Telekom is confident that mobile manufacturers such as Samsung, HTC and Nokia are set to embed it in future models.

One of the key strengths of joyn, particularly of relevance in Germany, is that it offers greater security compared with OTT apps such as WhatsApp, which came under scrutiny in January following a joint investigation by Dutch and Canadian regulators, for violating international privacy laws. “Since the companies offering the service are located in Germany, along with their server facilities, the service conforms to stringent European data-protection regulations,” explains the official GSMA announcement, pointing out that network operators make money by charging for connectivity rather than mining user behaviour and contacts.

With regards to pricing, Deutsche Telekom are allowing the service’s chat and file transfer functions to be used at no additional charge to customers on tariffs that include a data or SMS flat rate bundle. Usage of joyn also won’t contribute to data caps, so 15MB files and video calls can be happily exchanged at the end of the month as well as the start of it. The service will also available to prepaid customers at no additional charge until the end of August to encourage service uptake.

It will be interesting to see how the service is accepted by Deutsche Telekom’s customers, but we expect that now the two largest German operators have launched joyn, the levels of interest and service uptake will increase and gain momentum over the coming months. We’ll be following closely!

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Mobile messaging: from evolution to revolution

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The messaging world as we once knew it has changed significantly over the last few years with a raft of new services from internet players, device manufacturers and application developers, which all see the value in messaging and have all developed their own messaging services. Consumers have also changed their messaging behaviours, sending more messages than ever before, and expecting added value and richer features. Not only do they want to chat and text but share rich content, see presence and receive notification and updates  Launched today, our own research, questioning 1,000 UK smartphone users from across the UK, shows that 80% of today’s consumers are now using Over-The-Top (OTT) and Instant Messaging (IM)  services – with 76% using OTT and SMS together.  This indicates a nation of ‘eclectic communicators’ with 76% of Smartphone owners using multiple messaging services simultaneously each day, and 40% using them all the time – leading to a fragmented market.

So, why are Smartphone owners using multiple messaging apps and what more can be done to ensure consumers remain loyal to one service? Acision’s research shows that consumers set a combination of requirements across cost, rich features and service quality; with the added assurance for all that they can reach anyone at any time.  Today, no single service on the market can provide this, so using SMS with OTT/IM services simultaneously is the best way to cover all bases.

While the market is inundated with services, we believe mobile operators are in a unique position to lead the messaging space as the owner of the end-to-end mobile lifecycle and infrastructure.  They generally provide the handset, the mobile number, the user contract and the network (including the move to LTE),as well  as own the billing, the customer relationship and intelligence while driving the user’s quality of experience.   With this in mind, mobile operators are only providers that have the ability to deliver a single solution which provides a rich, ubiquitous messaging experience breaking the fragmentation barrier and enabling monetisation of services with new commercial models.

Today, many operators are starting to launch their own IP, rich messaging services, such as RCS based on GSMA’s standards and branded as “joyn™”. The latest example is SK Telecom which signed up 1m users 50 days and is now allowing joyn users to send messages to non-joyn users and those off network, via SMS interworking.  This approach provides operators with potential to exploit IP/LTE networks and Smartphones while having full design over the richer customer experience, with the unique capability to provide SMS and MMS interworking which can only be offered by mobile operators and can be a silver bullet their service offering.

Although only 6% of users polled in the UK had ever heard of joyn, 77% said they’d use it the service with the right pricing. Rich Messaging / RCS are considered a strategic investment to assure relevancy, value and increase customer loyalty. Whether the magic factor of SMS will also be realised in RCS is yet to be seen but if Rich Messaging is built into the mobile network, operators can ensure always-on available rich connectivity underpinned by SMS.

Already, 64% of users questioned in our research are attracted to features such as reaching anyone on any application.  Additionally, consumers stated that a service which reaches everyone from a single application (58%) as well as provided a single conversation trail (52%) from all apps in a single view would be attractive to them. This shows the consumer desire for rich services is strong, and the response to joyn is a good indicator that people also want this but with the reach and reliability that is offered by SMS at the same time. Guaranteeing immediate delivery of a message via SMS when other applications are not available, for example, was popular with 59% of respondents.

In understanding the past, present and future of messaging, our strategy is to lead operators in their move to Rich Messaging and RCS, ensuring they can provide a seamless and superior user experience.  Operators are in a position to deliver on the promise of reaching anyone, anywhere, on any device through a ubiquitous service and by taking this approach, they can lead the IP Messaging revolution and ecosystem. Our objective is to enable operators to lead by example, enhance and enrich messaging and bring new, monetisable services to market faster.

Click here to view the full release for more details.

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Korea’s SK Telecom signs up 1m users in 50 days to RCS “joyn” service

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Following news that SK Telecom has attracted over 1 million subscribers to its Joyn.T service, the question should be asked what have they done to achieve this? Could it be that SK Telecom enabled its subscribers to send joyn messages to contacts that are not signed up to the service or are off network, through SMS interworking, or was it the aggressive marketing activity around the service or other the rich features offered that made the service so attractive?

Recent messaging research conducted by Acision* found SMS/MMS interworking to be a key features consumers want from a messaging service to enable ubiquitous communication, on top of the other rich messaging functionality such as delivery notifications, presence, seeing a reply being written and sharing rich content, such as videos and pictures.  Additionally, SMS/MMS interworking provides operators with a unique capability that OTT providers like WhatsApp, Facebook and KakoaTalk can never offer.

The other key factor here is customer value.  As almost all people mis-perceive OTT messaging services to be free thanks to data bundle pricing models, one way operators can compete with new messaging entrants is to follow a similar route as SK Telecom and other European operators.  SK Telecom, for example, is offering unlimited, free-for-life joyn.T SMS/IMS services to its smartphone subscribers on flat-rate plans. Data fees incurred from sending/receiving messages are not deducted from subscribers’ data allowances.

The operator is also offering open APIs to developers for games, social networking and mobile commerce, as well as having the ability to mine the usage data to provide targeted promotions to users. All services SK Telecom can monetise, while also adding value and building loyalty.  We believe by demonstrating value for money with the added richness to the experience is key to successful service uptake.

*The full results from Acision’s latest consumer research, will be released next week on www.acision.com and www.theartofmessaging.com

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Is the death of SMS greatly exaggerated?

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Telecom TV Executive Insight: The death of SMS greatly exaggerated?

Telecom TV Executive Insight: The death of SMS greatly exaggerated?

Watch Simon Dumbleton VP of Business Strategic Development at Acision, discuss his views about the exaggerated reports of the demise of SMS with Telecom TV. While SMS may eventually be phased out in the long term, the key he believes, is to avoid sudden and catastrophic expiry due to OTT competition. How? Bundle simple messaging withiin a package and then evolve richer messaging services like Joyn that will hold customers’ attention.

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