This week’s Tech Time Warp goes back thirty-three years ago when a 22-year-old software engineer in the UK started what is now a modern holiday tradition: sending Christmas greetings via text. Neil Papworth sent the first SMS text message to his boss on Dec. 3, 1992, using the Vodafone network. The message simply read “Merry Christmas.”
Vodafone director Richard Jarvis, who was attending a holiday party, couldn’t reply via text — that technology didn’t yet exist — but he did give Papworth a call to let him know the message had come through on his Orbitel 901 phone, which weighed almost 5 pounds.
At the time, Papworth didn’t realize this was a historic moment. Upon the SMS text’s 25th anniversary, he told CBC Radio in Canada he was just doing his job and ensuring his longtime project was successful. The message itself was short and to the point, in no small part due to the system’s 160-character limit, which ultimately led to text message shorthand, emoticons and emojis.
A year later, Nokia released a cell phone with SMS texting capabilities and a beep indicating a new message, but messages could only be sent within the carrier’s network. Cross-carrier messages were not an option until 1999.
The number of SMS text messages sent annually peaked at nearly 7.8 trillion in 2012. While texting is still wildly popular, mobile messaging apps such as WhatsApp and WeChat have taken some market share due to greater compatibility, fewer costs to the end user, and encryption.
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Photo: Zamrznuti tonovi / Shutterstock
This post originally appeared on Smarter MSP.