History of Text Messaging | SMS

Text messaging is considered as the fastest and most reliable means of communication. It has gained worldwide popularity and has attracted billions of subscribers. Let us learn how text messaging was developed.
Text messaging or commonly called texting is the process of sending short messages usually 160 characters from a mobile phone. The latest mobile phones are capable of sending as much as 20 pages containing 160 characters of text messages. These messages are commonly called SMS, texts or text messages.

History:

• first ever text message was sent during 1989 by Edward Lantz, a former NASA employee. The text message was sent through a Motorola beeper. The message consists of numbers read upside down to read the message.
• 1992 in the United Kingdom, the first SMS messaging was used in a commercial sent through a Vodafone GSM network. The SMS message was sent by Neil Papworth with the use of a desktop computer. The SMS contains the word Merry Christmas which was sent to Richard Jarvis from Vodafone through a handset device.

• 1993 Nokia made the first mobile phone, which allow customer to send text messages.

• 1995 T9 invented, T9 (Text on 9 Keys) it was a predictive text technology for mobile phones.
• 1997 first mobile phone (Nokia 9000i) with full keyboard for typing text messages released by Nokia.

• 1999 first time message could be send between different operators (AT&T and Verizon).

• At first, text messaging has not been very popular since it was designed primarily to be used by the hearing impaired. During the 1990s only few messages were being sent through SMS. But during the year 2000, there have been a gradual increase in the use of text messaging.
• 2003 short codes were introduced.
• Among the Asian countries, the Philippines have the largest population of mobile subscribers who uses text messaging as a means of communication. An average of 20 text messages is being sent daily by a subscriber.
• According to the Global Messaging Survey conducted by Nokia, text messaging has been proven to be an addictive activity. This has been confirmed by a study by the University of Queensland which is based in Australia. It has been compared to be as addictive as cigarette smoking.