Texting

Texting

On December 3 1992, engineer Neil Papworth sent the first SMS message to Richard Jarvis of Vodafone. It simply read "Merry Christmas," and Jarvis had no way of replying. The idea of sending short messages via mobile phone only became a focus for telecoms companies in the UK years later, though the first commercial SMS service was launched in Sweden in 1993 by Telia. Most companies in 1994 were investing heavily in pagers, but consumers' enthusiasm for texts, which did not require the intermediary of an operator, meant a change of tack from the mid-1990s onwards. Vodafone in the UK launched text messaging in 1994. At that, time texts were completely free but could be sent only to people on the same network. The medium gained instant popularity among students, who soon began shortening words into "text speak." Mobile phones already had number-pads with letters on them as part of digital GSM product specifications so that people could enter names in their phonebooks. In the early days of texting, users had to stick to a 160 character limit (there was no way of running texts together as there is today) and T9 and other predictive text systems did not exist before 1995, meaning texting speeds were much slower. Full cross-network compatibility for SMS (between Vodafone, Cellnet, One-2-One and Orange) was not finalised until 1999, when charging started across networks. By January 2001, texts sent in a month hit a billion in the UK. The Telegraph reported that "Text messages sent on mobile phones have spawned their own truncated language, using allusion and codes to squeeze whole sentences into a maximum of 160 characters."

Our technology correspondent Robert Uhlig was slightly carried away, informing readers of a hugely complicated system unrecognisable to most using texts at the time. He reported: "SMS-speak uses a combination of symbols, abbreviations and phonetics for speed and brevity, and capitals for emphasis. The number 8, for example, substitutes for the "ate" sound, used in words such as gr8, h8 or st8. Capital letters are pronounced as written, so that 'accurate and balanced article' becomes 'aQr8 & balNsd RTcL'. "Emoticons can become quite sophisticated. Typing :'-( means "I am crying", while @:-) is "I am wearing a turban", and (:-I8> indicates a pregnant woman or conception. To denote a man or father, :- is used to denote the male genitalia, while >- or O+ signifies a woman." In 2004, then Prime Minister Tony Blair took part in a live text chat, but struggled with the technology. "My texting talents are poor, let's say underdeveloped," he told Capital FM. At the Leveson Inquiry, Rebekah Brooks, the former News International chief executive, told how she had to inform the Prime Minister that LOL means 'Laugh Out Loud' not 'Lots Of Love'. In the eight years since, texting has become the norm for staying in touch, and texts have saved lives, caused heartbreak and speeded up daily life for millions. It's now routine for parents to receive information about their children at school via text message and the NHS uses texts to confirm test results and appointments. Text messages have been harnessed for charitable giving and even divorce. In 2008, British surgeon David Nott received text message instructions on how to amputate a boy's leg in the Democratic Republic of Congo, saving his life. But texts can just as easily be used thoughtlessly or spitefully. Text cyber-bullying has become a new problem for teenagers and their parents and there have been reports of employees being made redundant via SMS.

Nine in ten 16-24 year olds now say they communicate with friends and family on a daily basis via text messages, compared to 15 per cent of over-65s, according to Ofcom. People in the UK sent an average of 200 SMS and MMS messages per month in 2011. The average number of text and picture messages sent per UK inhabitant continued to increase in 2011, growing by 17 per cent to 200 messages per month. But today text messages look under threat from apps such as WhatsApp and Vibr that provide the same service but over the internet, and email and video calling over 3G and 4G networks. "But texts have now surpassed traditional phone calls and meeting face to face as the most frequent way of keeping in touch for UK adults, revolutionising the way we socialise, work and network. “For the first time in the history of mobile phones, SMS volumes are showing signs of decline. However the availability of a wider range of communications tools like instant messaging and social networking sites, mean that people might be sending fewer SMS messages, but they are ‘texting’ more than ever before.”