Payments are evolving as consumer expectations shift towards faster, simpler, and more convenient transactions. Businesses across industries—retail, finance, healthcare—seek ways to make payments frictionless and intuitive for their customers. In this push for innovation, Authvia is helping lead the charge with its messaging-based payment solution, TXT2PAY®. Authvia offers a faster, more secure way to handle transactions, meeting customers where they already communicate with businesses by embedding payments directly into messaging platforms like SMS, WhatsApp, and RCS.
Authvia's Game-Changing Solution
Chris Brunner, founder and CEO of Authvia, explains, "We've enabled any businesses to send a payment request directly through their existing messaging channel and put it instantly in the palm of their customer's hand." Founded to enhance the consumer experience, Authvia introduced a patented authorization process right in the text or chat string. This powerful messaging-based payment solution eliminates the need for portals and apps. Instead, businesses send payment requests via text, and customers simply respond with a secure code to complete the transaction—just like that. No app to download. No login screens. No fuss.
Brunner's vision was simple but profound: embed robust transaction capabilities directly into the conversation. "We're not asking businesses to build a new banking relationship; we'll connect to your existing payment processor," he explains, emphasizing Authvia's ease of integration into existing systems and today offers connectivity out of the box to over 250 payment companies. This innovative approach works across platforms—RCS, WhatsApp, SMS, Instagram—meaning businesses don't need to overhaul their entire infrastructure to adopt it. Authvia plugs in and powers an entirely new and seamless user experience.
The Evolution of Text-to-Pay
Text-to-pay didn't emerge overnight. Its viability grew as consumers and businesses gravitated toward messaging platforms as primary communication tools. But messaging remained just that—communication. "It turns out customers want to do more than chat. They want transactions in the same thread," Brunner shares. Businesses across sectors see over 60% of their transaction volume via text, showing how quickly consumers adapted to this frictionless payment model.
But why now? Why text-to-pay over other payment systems? Speed and simplicity are the core drivers. As Brunner explains, "Text messages demand instant attention, and that's why they work so well for payments." Our data shows that 30% of customers pay within two minutes of receiving a payment request via text—compared to days or weeks when using traditional payment methods. The immediacy of messaging eliminates the usual delay caused by paper, email, web portals, and apps, where users might not receive it, get distracted, or abandon the transaction altogether due to friction.
RCS Messaging: A True Conversational Commerce Environment
While traditional SMS payments provide ease and speed, the rise of Rich Communication Services (RCS) pushes the boundaries even further. RCS transforms the standard messaging experience into more dynamic, branded, and interactive. "We're taking what was once a basic text message and turning it into a more immersive, branded experience," Brunner notes. Through RCS, businesses can include multimedia, such as images, carousels, and buttons, within the message, driving enhanced engagement.
For consumers, RCS messaging looks and feels like an app—without needing to download one. Brunner explains, "With RCS, customers get a visually rich, app-like experience, but it's all within the messaging app they're already using." This allows payment transactions to feel more connected and personalized, creating a better user experience overall.
RCS enhances security and engagement and requires deeper levels of brand engagement, as consumers fully expect to do it all in the message going forward. "We've seen that RCS brings an entirely new level of customer engagement," Brunner says, highlighting the benefit of embedding rich media into the conversation. RCS will be an unparalleled channel for commerce, marketing, and consumer engagement, driving consumer interaction in a way SMS never could.
Security and Simplicity: Can They Coexist?
One critical concern with any digital payment solution is security, especially one as direct as text-to-pay. Authvia addresses this concern head-on with advanced encryption, tokenization, PCI-Level 1, SOC 2, and HIPAA compliance. Sensitive payment and PII data are stored securely and never shared directly with businesses, reducing the risk of fraud.
Beyond encryption, Authvia has built-in intelligence. "The system knows if your bank only takes ACH transfers or if credit cards are accepted, knows which payment form the customers prefers with each merchant," Brunner explains. This flexibility ensures that consumers can use their preferred payment method while businesses can optimize interchange. Compliance is baked into the system, and businesses don't have to worry about managing data in a way that exposes them to potential breaches.
Adoption Across Industries
Authvia's flexibility makes it a fantastic fit across most industries. Retail giants use the platform to aid in taking payments over the phone in call centers, Pharmacies enabling a signature-and-go fast lane and delivery of goods and services, while credit unions and automotive groups are seeing faster billing and collection processes through text-based payments. "We're seeing incredible results in all categories," Brunner notes. "Businesses are improving time to cash and increasing overall customer satisfaction." Brands using the platform have witnessed 65% of their total transaction volume processed via text—numbers, highlighting how message-based payments drive sales by massively reducing friction.
Healthcare practices, in particular, benefit from this technology. Patients who previously struggled with lengthy billing processes now receive a simple text, pay their bills, and avoid the hassle and time of paying via paper or a passive web portal experience, reducing the administrative burden on medical providers. The result? Faster payments, less overhead, and a better experience for both patient and provider.
What's Next for Conversational Commerce?
Today, over 7B devices come preloaded with SMS and soon-to-be RCS. This is projected to be a $5T market globally by 2028* As the payment landscape evolves, the shift towards messaging-based commerce is clear. Companies like Authvia, at the forefront of this coming transformation, are leading the next wave of innovation. Brunner's vision for the future goes beyond just payments; today, it includes pushing money to consumers, grabbing signatures, uploading documents, data capture, ID verification, geo-location services, AI tools, and many more exciting additions. "The brands that will thrive tomorrow are meeting their customer's needs today."
By transforming messaging into a powerful commerce channel, Authvia is changing how businesses and consumers interact with money. The future of payments is no longer locked behind apps and portals. It's happening in text threads, WhatsApp conversations, and branded RCS messages. Authvia's platform makes these transactions instant, secure, and seamless. In a world demanding speed, simplicity, and security, Authvia is leading the charge.
*https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/5780891/global-conversational-commerce-market?utm_source=CI&utm_medium=PressRelease&utm_code=mtpbmc&utm_campaign=1854238+-+Global+Conversational+Commerce+Market+Intelligence+and+Future+Growth+Dynamics+Databook+-+Q1+2023+Update%3a+Sector+to+Reach+%244.9+Trillion+by+2028+at+a+23.1%25+CAGR&utm_exec=como322prd
