Text messaging

A text message using SMS – the 160 character limit led to the abbreviations of "SMS language"
A text message on an iPhone announcing an AMBER Alert
A multimedia message displayed on a mobile phone
SMS is used to send "welcome" messages to mobile phones roaming between countries. Here, T-Mobile welcomes a Proximus subscriber to the UK, and Base welcomes an Orange UK customer to Belgium.
This sticker seen in Paris satirizes the popularity of communication in SMS shorthand. In French: "Is that you? / It's me! / Do you love me? / Shut up!"
A driver with attention divided between a mobile phone and the road ahead
Two girls text during class at school
A text message that (he says) promises 500 Libyan dinars ($400) to anyone who "makes noise" in support of Gaddafi in the coming days
A recruitment ban in French SMS language: «Slt koi29 on é jamé 2tro @ s batre pour la P. ;-)» = «''Salut! Quoi de neuf? On n'est jamais de trop à se battre pour la Paix!»
Some health organizations manage text messaging services to help people avoid smoking

Act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile devices, desktops/laptops, or another type of compatible computer.

- Text messaging
A text message using SMS – the 160 character limit led to the abbreviations of "SMS language"

26 related topics

Alpha
An SMS message written on a Motorola RAZR V3

SMS

An SMS message written on a Motorola RAZR V3
E.161, a common mobile keypad alphabet layout
A Siemens wireless landline telephone that is capable of SMS
SMS messages sent monthly in the U.S. from 2001 to 2008 (in billions)
An example of a phishing attack through SMS, showing a fake message and URL claiming to be from Apple

SMS (Short Message Service) is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet, and mobile device systems.

A standard ITU-T E.161 keypad used for text messaging

Predictive text

Input technology used where one key or button represents many letters, such as on the numeric keypads of mobile phones and in accessibility technologies.

Input technology used where one key or button represents many letters, such as on the numeric keypads of mobile phones and in accessibility technologies.

A standard ITU-T E.161 keypad used for text messaging

Short message service (SMS) permits a mobile phone user to send text messages (also called messages, SMSes, texts, and txts) as a short message.

Keypad used by T9.

T9 (predictive text)

Predictive text technology for mobile phones , originally developed by Tegic Communications, now part of Nuance Communications.

Predictive text technology for mobile phones , originally developed by Tegic Communications, now part of Nuance Communications.

Keypad used by T9.
Screenshot, LG V60 Android, using T9 predictive text in "4x3" keyboard format. Screenshot taken 2020/08/06

T9's objective is to make it easier to enter text messages.

iTap in action

ITap

Predictive text technology developed for mobile phones, developed by Motorola employees as a competitor to T9.

Predictive text technology developed for mobile phones, developed by Motorola employees as a competitor to T9.

iTap in action

This makes some of the modern mobile phones features like text messaging and note-taking easier.

Friedhelm Hillebrand

German engineer who has been influential in setting mobile telecommunications standards.

German engineer who has been influential in setting mobile telecommunications standards.

As chairman of the non-voice services committee for the Global System for Mobile Communications standard in 1985, he conducted experiments to determine the length needed for text messages and found that 160 characters was sufficient.

Strasbourg seen from Spot Satellite

Bernard Ghillebaert

French telecommunications engineer and businessman, and former Chief Executive of Orange UK.

French telecommunications engineer and businessman, and former Chief Executive of Orange UK.

Strasbourg seen from Spot Satellite

With the German engineer Friedhelm Hillebrand, he created the standards for text messaging in 1984, resulting in February 1985 with the GSM (Groupe Spécial Mobile) standard, also known as Global System for Mobile Communications for the Short Message Service (SMS), now known as text messaging.

This screenshot shows the "Inbox" page of an email client; users can see new emails and take actions, such as reading, deleting, saving, or responding to these messages.

Email

Method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices.

Method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices.

This screenshot shows the "Inbox" page of an email client; users can see new emails and take actions, such as reading, deleting, saving, or responding to these messages.
The at sign, a part of every SMTP email address
When a "robot" on Wikipedia makes changes to image files, the uploader receives an email about the changes made.
Email operation
The interface of an email client, Thunderbird.

Young people preferred instant messaging, texting and social media.

A telephone keypad using the ITU E 1.161 International Standard.

Telephone keypad

Keypad installed on a push-button telephone or similar telecommunication device for dialing a telephone number.

Keypad installed on a push-button telephone or similar telecommunication device for dialing a telephone number.

A telephone keypad using the ITU E 1.161 International Standard.
Telephone with letters on its rotary dial (1950s, UK)
British GPO 726 telephone of 1967.
A standard telephone keypad.
The official toll-free hotline for the California Department of Transportation's Adopt-a-Highway program is 1-866-236-7824, but signs advertise the number as 1-866-ADOPTAHWY, with two extra digits, for memorability.
Mobile phone keypad with Latin and Japanese letters.

In feature phones the letters on the keys are used for text entry tasks such as text messaging, entering names in the phone book, and browsing the web.

MasterCard SecureCode uses OTAC to confirm a user's identity

One-time password

Password that is valid for only one login session or transaction, on a computer system or other digital device.

Password that is valid for only one login session or transaction, on a computer system or other digital device.

MasterCard SecureCode uses OTAC to confirm a user's identity
One time authorization code as used in Yammer's desktop client
RSA SecurID security tokens.
Paper-based OTP web-site login

A common technology used for the delivery of OTPs is text messaging.

A Teletype Model 32 used for Telex service

Telex

Station-to-station switched network of teleprinters similar to a telephone network, using telegraph-grade connecting circuits for two-way text-based messages.

Station-to-station switched network of teleprinters similar to a telephone network, using telegraph-grade connecting circuits for two-way text-based messages.

A Teletype Model 32 used for Telex service
A late-model British Telecom "Puma" telex machine of the 1980s

Telex served as the forerunner of modern fax, email, and text messaging – both technically and stylistically.