RCS CloudWatch metrics and monitoring - AWS End User Messaging SMS
RCS messaging metricsModified existing metrics with OriginationIdentityType dimensionRCS metric dimensionsInbound RCS message metricsMonitoring best practices for RCS
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RCS CloudWatch metrics and monitoring

AWS End User Messaging publishes RCS messaging metrics to CloudWatch in the AWS/SMSVoice namespace. You can use these metrics to monitor your RCS message delivery, track fallback behavior from RCS to SMS, and set alarms to alert you when delivery patterns change. RCS metrics are published alongside existing SMS and MMS metrics in the same namespace.

RCS messaging metrics

The AWS/SMSVoice namespace includes the following metrics specific to RCS messaging. These metrics track RCS message sending, delivery, and SMS fallback.

RCS messaging metrics
Metric Description Unit Meaningful statistics
RCS.MessagesSent

The number of RCS messages sent. This metric counts messages that AWS End User Messaging accepted and attempted to deliver via RCS. Messages blocked by Protect or service limits are excluded from this count.

 Count

  • Sum

  • Sample Count

  • Average
RCS.MessagesDelivered

The number of RCS messages successfully delivered to the recipient's device. A message is counted as delivered when AWS End User Messaging receives a delivery confirmation from the RCS infrastructure.

 Count

  • Sum

  • Sample Count

  • Average
RCS.MessagesFallenBackToSMS

The number of messages that were initially attempted via RCS but fell back to SMS delivery. This metric helps you understand how often RCS delivery is unavailable for your recipients and can be used to track fallback rates over time.

 Count

  • Sum

  • Sample Count

  • Average

Modified existing metrics with OriginationIdentityType dimension

With the addition of RCS, several existing metrics in the AWS/SMSVoice namespace now support the OriginationIdentityType dimension. This dimension allows you to filter metrics by the type of origination identity used to send the message, including AWS RCS Agents.

The following existing metrics now include the OriginationIdentityType dimension:

  • NumberOfTextMessagePartsSent — Filter by origination identity type to see how many text message parts were sent via each channel (phone number, sender ID, AWS RCS Agent, or pool).

  • NumberOfTextMessagePartsDelivered — Filter by origination identity type to compare delivery rates across channels.

  • NumberOfMediaMessagePartsSent — Filter by origination identity type to track media message sending by channel.

  • NumberOfMediaMessagePartsDelivered — Filter by origination identity type to compare media message delivery across channels.

  • TextMessagesBlockedByProtect — Filter by origination identity type to see which channels have messages blocked by Protect rules.

  • MediaMessagesBlockedByProtect — Filter by origination identity type to track Protect blocking by channel.

Use the OriginationIdentityType dimension with a value of RCS_AGENT to isolate metrics for messages sent through your AWS RCS Agent. For more information about the available dimension values, see RCS metric dimensions.

RCS metric dimensions

You can use the following dimensions to filter and group RCS metrics. These dimensions are available for both the new RCS-specific metrics and the modified existing metrics described in the previous sections.

OriginationIdentityType dimension

The OriginationIdentityType dimension filters metrics by the type of origination identity used to send the message.

OriginationIdentityType dimension values
Value Description
PHONE_NUMBER Messages sent using a phone number (long code, short code, or toll-free number).
SENDER_ID Messages sent using a sender ID.
RCS_AGENT Messages sent using an AWS RCS Agent.
POOL Messages sent using a phone pool. When you send through a pool, AWS End User Messaging selects the appropriate origination identity (AWS RCS Agent or phone number) automatically.

MessageType dimension

The MessageType dimension filters metrics by the type of message.

MessageType dimension values
Value Description
TEXT Text messages sent via RCS or SMS.
MEDIA Media messages (MMS). RCS in AWS End User Messaging currently supports text messages only.
DELIVERY_REPORT Delivery report messages confirming message delivery status.
Note

The READ_REPORT message type is not available because read receipts are not supported in the current release of RCS in AWS End User Messaging.

Inbound RCS message metrics

The existing NumberOfMessagesReceived metric in the AWS/SMSVoice namespace now includes inbound RCS messages. You can use the OriginationIdentityType dimension with a value of RCS_AGENT to filter for inbound messages received through your AWS RCS Agent.

The following dimensions are available for inbound RCS message metrics:

  • OriginationIdentityType — Use RCS_AGENT to filter for inbound RCS messages.

  • IsoCountryCode — Filter by the country code of the inbound message sender.

  • MessageType — Use TEXT to filter for text messages received via RCS. In the current release, RCS in AWS End User Messaging supports inbound text messages only.

Monitoring best practices for RCS

Use the following best practices to monitor your RCS messaging operations and identify delivery issues early.

Track RCS versus SMS delivery rates

Compare RCS.MessagesDelivered against RCS.MessagesFallenBackToSMS to understand what percentage of your messages are delivered via RCS versus SMS. A high fallback rate may indicate that many of your recipients are on carriers or devices that don't support RCS. Use the following formulas to calculate key rates:

RCS delivery rate = 100 * SUM(RCS.MessagesDelivered) / SUM(RCS.MessagesSent)

SMS fallback rate = 100 * SUM(RCS.MessagesFallenBackToSMS) / SUM(RCS.MessagesSent)

Track these rates over time to identify trends as carrier and device support for RCS expands. A decreasing fallback rate indicates that more of your recipients are receiving messages via RCS.

Set CloudWatch alarms for RCS metrics

Create CloudWatch alarms to alert you when RCS messaging patterns change unexpectedly. Consider setting alarms for the following conditions:

  • High fallback rate — Set an alarm when RCS.MessagesFallenBackToSMS exceeds a threshold percentage of RCS.MessagesSent. A sudden increase in fallback may indicate an issue with your AWS RCS Agent or a carrier outage.

  • Delivery rate drop — Set an alarm when the ratio of RCS.MessagesDelivered to RCS.MessagesSent drops below your expected delivery rate.

  • Inbound message volume — If you use two-way RCS messaging, set an alarm on NumberOfMessagesReceived (filtered by OriginationIdentityType = RCS_AGENT) to detect unexpected changes in inbound message volume.