The History of Text Messaging

Today, sending a text message takes only a moment, but it wasn’t always that convenient. Before texting became the main way to communicate, people wrote lengthy letters and had to schedule calls on landlines.

It’s hard to imagine how far technology has come, and a reminder not to take it for granted. It has truly changed the way we connect, and if you want to understand how it all began, read on to learn more about:

• The history of text messaging.
• When did texting start​?
• Early text messaging​ until today​.

Let’s immerse ourselves in the history of text messaging:

Imagine a time without your phone... without the ability to just send a quick “Hey, wanna go for coffee?”, no social media, and no spontaneous phone calls.

Well, that sums up about 5000 years of written communication in human history. Nowadays, it is unthinkable to function without a phone. So, how did people communicate for most of humanity without one?

Letters

Yes, the old-fashioned handwritten letters — like in The Notebook.

However, just like phones, letters underwent significant changes over time. The oldest letters date back to approximately 2500-2000 BCE, written on clay tablets and papyrus using early writing systems. From then until the early 1900s, handwritten letters were the main form of long-distance communication.

By the end of the 19th century, letters could also be typed on typewriters, making them faster and more standardized.

Telegraph

In the meantime, other inventions revolutionized communication. The telegraph, invented in 1837, enabled the first instant messages, which were delivered in minutes instead of hours or days.

The messages were very concise, as the sender was charged per word. A combination of dots and dashes was used to represent particular letters and numbers, also called the morse code.

Telephone

The invention of the telephone in 1876 enabled, for the first time, instant, real-time spoken communication.

However, the early days were limited, as calls often required manual switchboards and could only be made from designated locations. It wasn’t until the early 20th century that telephones became common in homes.

Before the arrival of mobile phones, there was one intermediate step — phone booths! Who remembers those?

Pagers

However, the bridge to phones and texting was pagers. With only a limited number of numeric characters and non-direct replies to a message, pagers have become a convenient tool for urgent situations. This is the reason why they are still used nowadays, for example, in hospital settings, where reliability and instant alerts are critical.

Before texting became an everyday habit, sending messages over long distances required time and effort. People relied on letters, telegraphs, and telephones to stay in touch with one another. The idea of sending a quick message straight to someone’s pocket seemed impossible and futuristic, and the history of text messaging began not that long ago...

The history of texting​ begins with the development of SMS (Short Message Service) in the 1980s, which was part of the GSM mobile phone standard in Europe.

The very first message was sent in 1992 by Neil Papworth, who wrote Merry Christmas to his engineer colleague. The developed system enabled messages of up to 160 characters to be sent between mobile devices. However, at that time, not everyone owned a mobile phone, and it was not until the late 1990s and early 2000s that mobile phones became widely available to everyone.

By that time, texting had become increasingly popular. Texting developed features like T9 predictive text, and mobile phones became more affordable for the average person. Texting became faster with the launch of QWERTY keyboards on mobile devices.

With the release of the iPhone in 2007, the era of smartphones began. Now, mobile devices could also use the internet to text, and by using iMessage, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger, texting expanded to include sending multimedia, such as photos, videos, voice notes, emojis, GIFs, reactions, and more.