RCS Rich Cards – The Complete Guide

Communicating with customers today is about more than just text.
With RCS Rich Cards, you can send interactive and visual
appealing messages directly to the recipient's default messaging app.

In this guide, we walk through how to use our API to
sending RCS Rich Cards and Carousels – the tools that transform
a simple message to a rich experience.

Prerequisites

An account: Create an account at shop.ip1.net/account/new
API key: Create a Bearer token in the user portal under Accounts > Permissions > API keys
Contact support at support@ip1.se to set up an agent
Base URL: All requests are made to https://api.ip1.net/v3/

How it works: Bundles and conversations

To send messages, we can use the endpoint bundles
or conversations. If you want to send to multiple recipients, use with
the benefit of the endpoint bundles, Medan conversations used to send to
individual recipients.

Both endpoints require basic data in order to handle your mailing:

Who is sending (brand & agent)
What is sent (card/carousel)
Who should get it (recipient or recipients)

By using the bundles endpoint, our API handles all the heavy lifting of delivering the right content to the right person, whether there are 10 or 10,000 recipients.

The conversation endpoint allows you to send to individuals, while at the same time you can continue the conversation without having to resend the metadata.

Important fields in your request

brand

A reference to your specific brand consisting of a unique GUID

"41b71b67-4035-4650-afdb-6f6531f4hf78.

Agent

A reference to the agent consisting of a unique string

"test_pfphlqns_agent"

Recipient - Bundle

An object where the key is the phone number.

{"46700123456": {"firstName": "Kalle"}}

Recipient - Conversation

A string where the value is the recipient's phone number.

"recipient": "46700123456"

card

The object that defines your Rich Card.

"{
    "card": {
        "title": "Spring SALE!",
        "content": "Hi {name}! We are now clearing out the warehouse for the summer.",
        "mediaUrl": "https://cdn.site.se/spring-sale.jpg",
        "type": 1
    }
}

Don't worry about your recipient seeing a weird ID or a boring string when you send an RCS, both brands and agents have an attribute for displayName, for example, your company name and the department you are sending from. You can read about this in the documentation for Brands and Agents

Step by step: Send an RCS Rich Card

Here is a complete example for sending a message with an RCS Rich Card (image and text). Don't forget to add your Auth Token, which you generate in the user portal.

🐍

Rich Card (Python)

import requests

api_token = "DIN_API_TOKEN"
url = "https://api.ip1.net/v3/bundles"

headers = {
    "Authorization": f"Bearer {api_token}",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}

payload = {
    "brand": "41b71b67-4035-4650-afdb-6f6531f4hf78",
    "agent": " test_pfphlqns_agent",
    "recipients": {
        "46700123456": {"firstName": "Kalle"}
    },
    "card": {
        "title": "Spring SALE!",
        "content": "Hi {name}! Now we are clearing out the warehouse for the summer.",
        "mediaUrl": "https://cdn.site.se/spring-sale.jpg",
        "type": 1
    }
}

response = requests.post(url, json=payload, headers=headers)
print(response.json())

📄

Rich Cards (Node.js)

const axios = require('axios');

const sendRcs = async () => {
  const url = 'https://api.ip1.net/v3/bundles';
  const token = 'DIN_API_TOKEN';

  const data = {
    brand: "41b71b67-4035-4650-afdb-6f6531f4hf78",
    agent: " test_pfphlqns_agent",
    recipients: {
      "46700123456": { "firstName": "Kalle" }
    },
    card: {
      title: "Sommarkampanj",
      content: "Få 20% rabatt på alla solglasögon!",
      mediaUrl: "https://cdn.site.se/promo-sun.jpg",
      type: 1
    }
  };

  try {
    const res = await axios.post(url, data, {
      headers: { 'Authorization': `Bearer ${token}` }
    });
    console.log('Success:', res.data);
  } catch (err) {
    console.error('Error:', err.response.data);
  }
};
sendRcs();

📄

Rich Cards (PHP)

"41b71b67-4035-4650-afdb-6f6531f4hf78",
    "agent" => "test_pfphlqns_agent",
    "recipients" => [
        "46700123456" => ["firstName" => "Kalle"]
    ],
    "card" => [
        "title" => "Welcome!",
        "content" => "Hi {name}, glad you're here.",
        "mediaUrl" => "https://site.se/bild.jpg",
        "type" => 1
    ]
];

$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, [
    'Authorization: Bearer ' . $token,
    'Content-Type: application/json'
]);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, json_encode($data));
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);

$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

echo $response;
?>

RCS Carousels: When one card is not enough

A carousel is created by sending a list of multiple cards. It is the ultimate way to showcase several products in the same message. The user can then swipe horizontally between your offers.

Tips: To build a carousel, use the carousel field instead of card and pass an array of card objects. Don't forget to set the order on each card object.

Field guide

Here we break down the technical terms into what they actually mean for your recipient.

The card object

Field	What it does	Pro tip
title	The heading at the very top (bold).	Keep it short and punchy (max 100 characters).
content	The body text below the image.	Use {name} to personalize it in a bundle
mediaUrl	The link to your image or video.	Use high-quality images (JPG/PNG).
Height	Determines the rank of the card (1, 2, or 3).	2 (Medium) tends to be "the sweet spot" for most mobile phones.

Personalization in Bundle Recipients (Templating)

Instead of just sending to a list of numbers, you send an object. This allows you to ”clean” your data directly in the dispatch:

"recipients": {
  "46700123456": { "firstName": "Kalle", "city": "Malmö" }
}

In your content or title you can then write:

”Hello {firstName}! We have free shipping to {city} today.”

The API automatically replaces the tags with the correct values for each unique recipient.

In summary, RCS Rich Cards and Carousels allow you to take the step from traditional text to interactive and visual experiences directly in customers' default messaging app.

Through our API and our endpoints for /bundles oh /conversations Can you seamlessly switch between executing large-scale campaigns and driving individual conversations, without compromising the brand identity thanks to clear roles for brands and agents.

Once you have your account, your Bearer token, and your agent set up, you just need to use the code examples to get started. By combining the right parameters for image, text, and button choices, you have everything required to transform simple communication into a richer and more engaging customer experience.

Would you like to know more about our API?

Visit our documentation page to read more about authentication, single or group sends, and how you can create more engaging functionality!

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