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Text-based customer experience in 2026 is broader than SMS: businesses can reach customers through SMS, RCS, messaging apps, and AI-assisted conversations. The right choice depends on who can receive the channel, what the customer needs to do, whether the conversation can continue across channels, and how easily a person can take over. Survey results show that messaging is important to many customers, but they do not prove that one channel—or a chatbot—works best for everyone.
What 2026 surveys say about customer messaging
Several recent surveys point to strong interest in messaging, alongside clear limits on what that interest means.
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- In Meta-commissioned Kantar research published by WhatsApp for Business, 73.3% of surveyed consumers across 22 markets said they preferred messaging when communicating with a business. The fieldwork ran from April to September 2025 and included 11,056 online adults aged 18–64; overall results were weighted to the global internet population distribution. Read the WhatsApp for Business research.
- In the same survey, 72.4% said they were more likely to purchase from a brand that offers messaging, 74.6% said it increased their trust in a business, and 66.8% said they felt frustrated when messaging was not offered as a contact option. These are reported attitudes, not proof that messaging alone causes purchases or trust.
- A separate 2026 U.S. online panel commissioned by EZ Texting surveyed 959 mobile-phone owners from January 20–23. In that sample, 46% said they preferred text and 43% preferred phone “always or most of the time.” The difference between those figures is specific to this panel and wording; it is not a global ranking of contact channels. See EZ Texting’s 2026 survey.
These findings support offering a messaging option where it fits the audience. They do not establish which app customers use in every country, whether they prefer text for every type of issue, or whether a business can meet their expectations once a conversation starts.
How to choose between SMS, RCS, messaging apps, and Apple Messages for Business
Assess the actual customer journey and audience before comparing engagement figures. A channel that supports rich actions is useful only if customers can access it and the business can maintain the conversation.
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| Channel | What it can offer | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| SMS | Familiar plain-text notices and conversational follow-up. | Whether it reaches the intended audience and how replies will be handled. The sources cited here do not establish universal delivery reliability, cost, or regional legal requirements. |
| RCS | On supported devices and services, branded messages, rich media carousels, quick replies, and one-tap actions. It can support interaction without requiring customers to open a separate messaging app. | Device and service support, provider configuration, and what fallback recipients receive. Do not assume every customer sees the same experience. |
| Messaging apps | A business conversation within an app customers may already use, such as WhatsApp. | Where the target audience communicates, regional reach, legitimacy and security expectations, and the platform’s current business capabilities and rules. The Kantar study covered 22 markets; it does not establish that one app dominates everywhere. |
| Apple Messages for Business | Twilio describes it as a customer-initiated channel suited to sales and support, rather than outbound marketing blasts. | It is iOS-first. Twilio’s overview says non-Apple customers receive SMS fallback; verify current regional and device coverage before relying on that behavior. Read Twilio’s channel overview. |
Before selecting a channel, evaluate these practical questions:
- Reach: What proportion of the target audience can receive it, considering geography, device, and fallback?
- Interaction: Is plain text sufficient, or does the task benefit from rich media, quick replies, or buttons?
- Conversation direction: Does the customer start the conversation, or does the business initiate it?
- Continuity: Can a customer move from a message to a phone call or another channel without repeating the story?
- Trust: How will customers recognize the business and understand what information or action is being requested?
- Task integration: Can the channel connect to the account, order, appointment, or other system needed to complete the request?
- Escalation: Is there a visible route to a person, and can that person see the conversation so far?
Twilio’s 2026 overview reports RCS click rates of 37% versus 33% for SMS, conversion rates of 7.8% versus 6.6%, and consumer-spend increases of 22% versus 16%. These are vendor-reported comparisons citing a 2025 State of Customer Engagement Report, not independent universal benchmarks. Treat them as a reason to run a measured pilot, not as a forecast for your audience.
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Why chatbot willingness does not guarantee adoption
Interest in automated help is not the same as using it, liking it, or returning to it. Meta-commissioned Kantar research found that 67.7% of surveyed consumers agreed that getting a response from an AI chatbot was helpful. In a separate 2026 Gartner survey of 3,566 B2B and B2C customers conducted in February and March, 49% said they would have been willing to use a chatbot if offered, but only 7% had used a chatbot or digital assistant in their most recent service interaction. The samples and questions differ, so these figures should not be treated as a direct comparison.
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Gartner also found that customers were three times as likely to use third-party GenAI as company-provided chatbots in their most recent customer-service interaction. Of customers who used GenAI, 58% said they had used it to complete a task on their behalf; in B2B environments, that figure was 74%. This points to a useful distinction: customers may value AI when it advances a task, not simply when it returns an answer. Read Gartner’s 2026 findings on GenAI and service.
Experience quality matters. In Gartner’s survey, only 27% of customers said they would try a chatbot again after a negative experience. A bot that blocks access to a person or repeatedly fails to resolve an issue may make future automation less acceptable, even to customers who initially say they are willing to try it.
Design automation around resolution, not containment
Start with a narrow group of frequent, well-understood requests. Make the bot’s capabilities clear, and connect it to the systems needed to take safe, bounded actions when appropriate—for example, changing an appointment or updating account information. Keep a direct route to human support for requests that are uncertain, sensitive, complex, or outside the bot’s abilities.
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- Choose a task with a clear finish. Define what counts as completion from the customer’s perspective, not just what the bot can answer.
- Set the bot’s scope. Tell customers what it can do and provide an obvious alternative if their request does not fit.
- Allow bounded action. Where connected systems and safeguards permit, let the bot complete a defined task rather than only describe how a customer might do it.
- Escalate with context. When a person takes over, pass along the transcript and information already collected so the customer does not need to start again.
- Measure service outcomes. Track successful resolution, repeat contacts, abandonment, customer effort, escalation quality, and opt-outs alongside clicks or conversions. A high containment rate by itself does not show that customers got help.
Gartner analyst Eric Keller advises service leaders to “prioritize reliability over reach” and not make GenAI a mandatory first step for every issue. Gartner also recommends designing digital support as conversational, action-oriented experiences rather than treating GenAI as a standalone chatbot. These recommendations fit the survey evidence: deploy automation where it can perform dependably, and keep human help accessible. Read Gartner’s guidance on human access in AI service.
Make human handoff and conversation continuity part of the service
In Gartner’s 2026 survey, 87% of customers said access to a human agent was essential when companies use GenAI in customer service. Separately, Genesys’s 2026 State of Customer Experience page reports that 95% of surveyed consumers said carrying context across channels matters. Its research base included 5,811 consumers and 1,560 CX and business leaders worldwide. These findings support treating handoff as a core part of the journey, not a fallback hidden behind repeated bot prompts. See the Genesys 2026 State of Customer Experience.
A useful handoff should tell the customer what is happening and give the agent the relevant conversation history and information already supplied. The receiving person should be able to continue the request rather than asking the customer to explain it again. If the business cannot preserve context between channels, be clear about the transition and ask only for information genuinely needed to proceed.
Keep outbound messages relevant and trustworthy
Message volume can affect whether customers keep a channel open. In EZ Texting’s January 2026 U.S. survey, 40% named message frequency as the leading trigger for opting out. The survey also found that 54% of respondents were comfortable with automated text assistants, while another 25% were open to them depending on the experience. Those results describe a U.S. panel, not a universal tolerance threshold.
Trust cues matter too: 79.3% of consumers in the WhatsApp for Business/Kantar survey said they required proof of legitimacy before engaging with a business. Make the sender and purpose recognizable, keep messages relevant to the customer’s relationship with the business, and avoid assuming that the mere presence of a messaging channel will establish trust.
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