All glossary terms

    Technical

    Suggested Replies and Actions

    Suggested replies and actions are the tappable buttons under an RCS message that let users respond, call a number, open a URL, or trigger a calendar invite without typing.

    The little buttons that drive conversion

    Underneath an RCS message, you often see a row of buttons: "Yes," "Reschedule," "Talk to a person," "Call us," "See directions." These are suggested replies and suggested actions, and they are one of the highest-leverage features in the entire RCS toolkit.

    A suggested reply sends a pre-written text response back to the brand when tapped. A suggested action triggers a phone-side behavior like dialing a number, opening a URL, sharing a location, or creating a calendar event.

    Why they matter so much

    Two reasons. First, removing friction. Asking a customer to type "yes, confirm" is asking them to do something. Asking them to tap a button labeled "Confirm" is asking them to do almost nothing. The conversion rate difference is enormous.

    Second, structuring the conversation. When a brand offers three suggested replies, it implicitly tells the user "these are the next valid moves," which makes 2-way conversation flows dramatically easier to design and operate. The AI or workflow on the other end gets clean, predictable inputs.

    The two types in detail

    Suggested replies

    Pure text. When tapped, they appear as the user's outgoing message in the chat. The brand defines the visible label and the underlying postback text (which can differ from the label, useful for analytics).

    Suggested actions

    These trigger native phone behaviors:

    • Dial action: opens the dialer with a number pre-filled
    • Open URL action: opens a browser or app via deep link
    • View location action: opens the map at a specific coordinate
    • Share location action: prompts the user to send their current location
    • Create calendar event action: pre-fills a calendar invite

    Design notes

    Up to four suggestions can appear under a single message or rich card. Keep labels under about 25 characters so they render cleanly. Lead with verbs ("Confirm," "Call us," "See menu") rather than abstract words. Mix replies and actions thoughtfully: a confirmation message might offer "Confirm," "Reschedule," and "Call support."

    Frequently asked questions

    Can I have more than four suggestions?
    The spec caps at four per message bubble. If you need more options, present them across a carousel or chain a follow-up message.
    Do suggested replies work as forms?
    Not directly. Suggestions are single-tap responses. For multi-field forms, use a sequence of suggestion-driven turns or hand off to a web form via an open-URL action.
    What happens to suggestions on devices that do not render them?
    On graceful-fallback platforms, suggestions degrade to plain text describing the options, or to SMS if RCS is unavailable.

    Related terms

    Rich Card
    A rich card is an RCS message format combining a hero image or video, title, description, and tappable action buttons inside a single visually framed card, often arranged into swipeable carousels.
    RCS Business Messaging (RBM)
    RCS Business Messaging is Google's program that lets verified brands send rich, interactive RCS messages to Android phones and to iPhones on iOS 18 and later, through approved partners and carrier networks.
    Two-Way Messaging
    Two-way messaging is any flow where the customer can reply to a brand's message and have that reply read, understood, and acted on, as opposed to one-way blasts where replies go nowhere.

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