Over 20 years ago the very first text message was sent. On the 3rd of December 1992 a message was sent from a computer to a mobile phone, using the UK’s Vodafone’s UK network. The message simply read “Merry Christmas”. Since then texting has taken off in a huge way. In 2010 alone, 6.1 trillion messages were sent (yes, that’s trillion - a million million) across the world. Over the last 20 years, that’s a lot of messages indeed.
So where does the simple text message stand today? Well, despite the sheer number of messages still being sent, it’s future looks somewhat divided. On the one hand developing countries - places like Africa - are seeing an increasing use of texting. Mobile banking is growing in popularity in large swaths of the continent, partly due to the use of SMS text messages.
Elsewhere in the world, it’s a different story. Smartphones, email, and apps have all contributed to users moving away from the simple text message and towards digital alternatives. Initially this could be put down to cost, as sending an email was often cheaper than sending a text (even taking into account a mobile data tariff). But in recent years, digital services have started to offer more features and functionality than any text message could hope to offer. Twitter offers similar short messages but with a wealth of added social and collaborative features. Apps likes Whats App Messenger (which has over 250 million registered users) offer group messaging, as well as video and audio options. Facebook has even got in on the act, recently unveiling a new version of its own Messenger app that no longer requires you to have a Facebook account.
So will the text message be around in 20 years? Probably. After all, vinyl records and VHS players are. Will it be as popular as it is today? Certainly not. But the very existence of this blog post shows just what a solid, useful, resilient technology SMS text messages were since Day One.