Recently, one of the most fortunate developments in the history of mobile, the text messaging system, turned 25. Developed as part of a Short Message Service Centre (SMSC) project for Vodafone UK in 1992, it was initially meant as a way to deliver testing and carrier messages, but the Finns from Radiolinja noted the potential, and were the first to offer it as a retail person-to-person SMS text messaging service to its subscribers in 1994.
The rest is history, and, contrary to popular belief, the switch to iMessage, WhatsApp, Messenger, Snapchat, Skype, Viber and the like, hasn't put much of a dent on the increase of the number of text messages sent in the US each year, as you can see in the graph below, courtesy of Statistic Brain:
In the era of Snapchat and Animoji, good ol' texting is still on the rise
That is why we were curious to hear whether you still text instead of chat, now that 2017 is closing to an end. Teens have been compulsive texters for a while now, sending sometimes a hundred messages per day, but these were stats from two or three years ago, and Snapchats may have taken over. So, are you still using text messages, and how frequently you hit your phone's SMS app to shoot those 160 characters of good ol' plain text with no Animoji to spice things up?
SMS messaging turned 25, are you still texting?
Very often
48.49%
Occasionally
27.11%
Very rarely
24.41%
926 Votes
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Daniel, a devoted tech writer at PhoneArena from 2010 to 2025, has been engrossed in mobile technology since the Windows Mobile era. His expertise spans mobile hardware, software, and carrier networks, and he's keenly interested in the future of digital health, car connectivity, and 5G. Beyond his professional pursuits, Daniel finds balance in travel, reading, and exploring new tech innovations, while contemplating the ethical and privacy implications of our digital future.
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