Vonage joins Google Early Access Program to Enhance SMS for Businesses

HOLMDEL, N.J., Feb. 24, 2017 -- Vonage (NYSE: VG), a leading provider of cloud communications for business, announced that it will collaborate with Google to provide businesses with enhanced features to the standard messaging experience on mobile devices. Through Nexmo, the Vonage API platform, this SMS upgrade enables delivery of improved business messaging to any Android mobile device, via RCS (Rich Communication Services), helping businesses to engage with their customers for deeper relationships and better business outcomes. Through Google's RCS Early Access Program, Vonage will offer its business customers, such as G2A.com and BlaBlaCar, this upgraded experience. For these, and other, Vonage customers that rely on messaging in their daily operations, the Early Access Program gives them access to all the new features that RCS messaging offers, from group chat, to high-res photo sharing, to read receipts, and more. These enhanced messaging capabilities will be delivered via the Nexmo Chat App API (patent pending), which provides multi-channel access through one simple-to-connect API. In an increasingly digital age, customers have the expectation that the businesses and brands they engage with will not only provide an "always on" customer service experience, but that they will have the ability to communicate via any device or medium which the customer prefers, whether it is SMS, RCS, chat or voice. "More and more businesses today rely on contextual communications to engage customers wherever they are for increased loyalty and better business outcomes," said Vonage CEO Alan Masarek. "RCS business messaging is a natural next step in our goal to reinvent how communications applications are built, providing our customers with the ability to streamline communications in an ecosystem where device and operating systems are irrelevant. RCS offers a much richer experience than either SMS or MMS, and it allows us to provide businesses with the ability to give their customers - no matter the device or operating system they use - the exceptional experience they need to stay competitive." Via Nexmo, the Vonage API Platform, Vonage provides cloud-based APIs that allow organizations to easily embed voice, messaging, phone verification and more into their applications, ensuring effective communications - via text, social media or chat apps - with both consumers and other businesses. Extending those capabilities to Android users through the RCS upgrade streamlines these communications, enabling consistent contextual communications. Added Tony Jamous, President of Nexmo, the Vonage API Platform, "This Early Access Program increases our reach within the business space. RCS messages are a great complement to existing SMS capabilities for Vonage customers, bringing additional value to businesses that have the need to deliver rich content, such as read receipts, branded inbound support and multimedia messages, to their customers across the globe." For more information, visit www.vonage.com.