What is rich media?

Compared to basic text-based messages, rich media can better capture attention, convey information, and foster a more enjoyable messaging experience. It imparts the visual appeal and interactivity that users expect from a modern messaging channel.

Examples of rich media

• Images: A picture is worth a thousand words, making images an effective way to convey information or emotions, showcase products, illustrate concepts, and more.

• Videos: The most dynamic and engaging form of content is video. It supports product demos, promos, storytelling, and enjoyable one-to-one user interactions.

• GIFs: Used to add personality or humor to conversations, GIFs let users express emotions and convey information in short, enjoyable bursts.

• Emojis: A way to visually express emotion and convey information, emojis let users display facial expressions, tone, and gestures rather than rely on text communication.

• Reactions: Like an emoji on steroids, reactions are visually appealing gestures that allow users to respond to messages with a lightweight burst of emotion.

• Audio: Voice messages or audio clips create a more immersive, efficient, and personal communication experience than text-based messages alone.

• Interactive elements: Buttons, sliders, carousels, quizzes, and other interactive elements allow users to take action, give feedback, and participate in more varied app experiences.

• Rich formatting: Rich media allows for formatting options that go beyond plain text, such as bold, italics, bullet points, headings, and other useful structures that help to improve the readability of messaging content.

Rich media plays a vital role in driving engagement among users who favor more diverse and interesting communication methods. Sendbird and other leading in-app communications platforms offer chat SDKs (software development kits) to help businesses integrate rich media capabilities with their in-app messaging. SDKs are ready-to-use sets of APIs, libraries, and other development resources that streamline integrating rich media across platforms.