The Texting Revolution

 

    On December 3, 1992 a man named Richard Jarvis sent the first text message. That event was a turning point in history. Jarvis sent the message to a 22-year-old man named Neil Papworth. Most people do not know this, but SMS text messaging was actually invented 1984, but did not start to take off until 1999. It started to become popular, when users started texting across different mobile networks. 
    Originally SMS texts were created by typing on a keyboard called T9. The T9 keyboard, is a 3x4 layout with letters that go along to corresponding numbers. This keyboard was ahead of its time and featured a predictive text feature. In 1996, the Nokia 9000i Communicator was created. This was the first phone to feature a QWERTY keyboard. Soon after, many other mobile phone companies began to adopt the QWERTY keyboard into their design. The QWERTY keyboard is what we use today in modern society. Whether it be your mobile phone keyboard, or your laptop, the QWERTY keyboard is what we use to type on. 
    2007 was a record-breaking year for the SMS texting technology. In that year alone, American sent and received more text messages per month than phone calls. Five years later, in 2012, SMS texting became THE most used data application in the world. Over the last decade, the number of texts sent worldwide has grown exponentially by 7,700% with an average of 560 billion texts being sent monthly. In 2013 Americans alone sent 2.27 trillion texts in one year, which equals about 6.3 billion sent per day or 20 per person per day. That number has since gone up today. Today SMS texting is something that is used in so many ways that the possibilities are endless.
    Along with social media, SMS Marketing has taken the world by storm. As entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk describes in the video below, SMS marketing is something that every business should get their hands into. Studies have shown that SMS marketing, is 98% more effective than email marketing. Vaynerchuk is a big advocate of SMS marketing and has coined this technology, the “counterpoint of social media”. SMS marketing is the only platform that has 98% open-rates and 90% engagement with its users. Personally, I am signed up for a few SMS marketing subscriptions such as Pura Vida and Kylie Cosmetics. Since I am a subscriber, I get access to exclusive deals and promotion along with access to new products before they drop to the public. I feel that SMS marketing has changed the game on the way we communicate with each other and the way we live our lives.
    A few years ago, Domino’s Pizza introduced a new feature that if you were an account holder with hem you could order your favorite pizza with just one text. All you needed to do was send a pizza emoji to the number Dominos provided, and voila the pizza is delivered to your door. Even companies like apple have taken advantage of texting innovations. A few years ago, Apple introduced a whole entire new texting layout. You have probably heard of something called Game Pigeon. Apple changed the way we text by adding an entire app store within iMessage where you can download apps to do things such as play games with friends or send iMessage stickers. Even with animated emojis called Animoji’s. 



Sources: 
https://www.forbes.com/sites/leahrosenbaum/2020/03/12/worried-about-coronavirus-now-you-can-text-message-a-chatbot-with-questions/?sh=22f48c547825

https://venturebeat.com/2013/05/08/five-reasons-you-should-be-using-sms-based-marketing/

https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/11/12/20960865/sms-texting-iphone-android-rms-reset-podcast




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