A customer glances at their phone, sees a text notification, and reads it within three minutes of it landing. That is not wishful thinking, it is simply how people behave with SMS. Around 90% of SMS messages are read within three minutes of delivery, which is a level of attention no other marketing channel comes close to matching. If you’re planning your marketing calendar for the rest of the year, understanding where text messaging is heading should be right at the top of your list.

2026 is proving to be a pivotal year for the channel. It’s no longer just about firing off a promotional blast and hoping for the best. Brands are getting smarter, regulators are tightening the rules, and customers are expecting more from every message that lands in their pocket. Below, we’ve pulled together the trends, stats, and practical tips that should shape your text strategy for the months ahead.

Why SMS still leads the pack

Email inboxes are cluttered, social feeds are unpredictable, and phone calls often go unanswered. Text messaging continues to cut through all of that noise. In 2026, 85.6% of consumers say they are opted in to receive texts from businesses, and 75.3% of businesses now use SMS as part of their marketing mix, both figures having grown compared with the previous year.

It helps to understand why people sign up in the first place. The most common reasons consumers give for opting in are appointment or reservation reminders, shipment tracking and order updates, and promotional offers or sale alerts. That tells you something important. Customers are not just tolerating text messages, they actively want the useful, timely ones. A campaign that respects this and mixes helpful updates with the occasional offer tends to outperform one that only ever pushes discounts.

Response rates back this up too. Text messages consistently generate far higher engagement than email, with reply and click through rates that most other channels simply cannot touch. If your current marketing plan leans heavily on email and social, adding or expanding a text programme is one of the more straightforward wins available this year.

The rise of richer, more visual messaging

One of the biggest shifts happening right now is the move from plain text towards richer, more interactive formats. Rich Communication Services, or RCS, allows businesses to send branded messages with images, buttons, carousels, and verified sender badges, all within the customer’s default messaging app.

This is not a niche experiment anymore. RCS traffic in the UK grew by 174% year on year, with penetration now reaching around 70% of the market, partly driven by consumers wanting more trustworthy, verified senders as scam texts become more common. Meanwhile, standard SMS still accounts for the largest share of global messaging traffic and continues to grow steadily in the UK too, so this is very much an addition to your toolkit rather than a replacement.

For most brands, the sensible approach is to keep SMS as your reliable, universal channel while testing RCS for campaigns where visuals genuinely add value, such as showcasing a new product range or sending a branded loyalty card. Not every device supports RCS yet, so a good platform should automatically fall back to standard SMS when needed.

AI and personalisation are changing what a good campaign looks like

Generic, one size fits all blasts are quickly losing ground. Businesses are now using customer data, purchase history, and automation to send messages that feel relevant to the individual reading them, rather than a mass audience. Automated flows triggered by customer behaviour, such as a reminder about an item left in a basket or a note when an order is ready for collection, are becoming the backbone of many programmes because they run in the background without constant manual input.

AI is playing a growing role here too, not just in writing copy but in working out the best send time for each customer, segmenting audiences more intelligently, and powering conversational tools that can answer simple queries instantly. We have seen this first hand through our own AI phone assistant work with hospitality brands, where automation and messaging work together to save staff time while keeping the customer experience personal rather than robotic.

Two way conversations are replacing one way blasts

Another clear shift this year is the move away from broadcast only messaging towards genuine two way conversation. Customers increasingly expect to be able to reply to a text, ask a question, or confirm a booking without picking up the phone. Brands that build in the ability to have a real conversation, whether handled by a person or supported by automation, tend to see stronger loyalty and fewer complaints than those sending strictly one way messages.

This ties closely into customer service too. Order updates, delivery tracking, and simple support queries are increasingly being handled over text rather than email or a call centre queue, because it is faster for the customer and cheaper for the business to manage.

Trust, compliance and the fight against scam texts

With SMS engagement so high, it has unfortunately become an attractive target for fraudulent “smishing” texts, and this is pushing both regulators and consumers to expect higher standards from legitimate senders. Verified sender information, clear opt out instructions, and transparent data practices are no longer optional extras, they are what separates a trusted brand from one that gets ignored or reported.

In the UK, any business sending marketing texts needs to stay on top of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, which set out the rules around consent and opting out. Getting this right protects your customers and your sender reputation, and it is worth reviewing your current practices if it has been a while since you last checked them.

What are the benefits of SMS marketing in 2026?

If you are still weighing up whether to invest more budget here, the core benefits remain compelling. Text messages are read quickly, they generate strong response rates compared with other channels, and they are relatively low cost to send at scale. They also work well alongside other channels rather than competing with them, filling gaps where email might get missed or a call would be too intrusive. For businesses managing bookings, deliveries, or loyalty programmes, SMS often becomes the most dependable line of communication a brand has with its customers.

Is SMS marketing still effective for smaller businesses?

Yes, and arguably more so than ever. You don’t need a huge database or a complex programme to see results. A café sending a simple reminder about a loyalty reward, or a local retailer confirming an order is ready for collection, can build real customer loyalty without a large marketing team behind it. Self-service platforms have made it far easier for smaller teams to launch their own campaigns without needing technical support, while larger businesses tend to benefit from a fully managed service or an API integration that connects text messaging directly into their existing systems.

Getting your strategy ready for the rest of 2026

The direction of travel is clear. Customers want relevant, timely messages rather than generic blasts, richer formats like RCS are gaining ground, automation and AI are handling more of the heavy lifting, and trust matters more than ever. Brands that treat texting as a genuine conversation channel, rather than a one way megaphone, are the ones seeing the strongest results this year.

If you want help building a text strategy that reflects where the channel is heading, our team at Text Management works with brands across food and drink, retail, leisure, and beyond to design campaigns that get read and get results. Get in touch with us today to talk through what a smarter SMS programme could look like for your business.