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The life of SMS is amazing. It went from state of the art technology, to the de facto communication channel for teens and youth, at least in Europe, to being o

The life of SMS is amazing. It went from state of the art technology, to the de facto communication channel for teens and youth, at least in Europe, to being obsolete in less than 25 years!

rusk 9y ago
The beauty of SMS is its serendipity. It was "just there" as an unused network feature and somebody thought to commercialise it. Back in the 90s the telcos were completely caught off guard - this was signalling architecture meant for setup/teardown of calls and other bits and pieces. Overnight a booming cottage industry in SMS Service Centres sprung up to offload all the additional traffic.
staticelf 9y ago
It's not obsolete. It is still the only way you can be pretty sure the recipient receives your message since it works on every phone in circulation. This is used heavily by shops online, postal services etc etc. Many telecom operators also offers basically unlimited texts and calls for a fixed price which makes it often an easier way to communicate than to figure out what service person x is currently on. I use sms way more than I communicate on any other digital service. I would like for everyone to use Signal or something but so far I only have 1 contact there. And by using sms, at least I know it is not indexed and searched by an american company to sell me more ads. Also, I live in a country with large, pretty empty areas. In several of these locations the 3G/4G-networks are often unavailable but sending a simple sms works just fine.
- fma 9y ago
  I also don't need to ask... Should I contact you on WhatsApp, FB, Wechat, Hangouts, Twitter or whatever the shiny thing of the day is. Just give me your phone number.
  - nicoburns 9y ago
    Indeed. It also works reliably internationally. China has blocked Facebook and WhatsApp, but SMS still works.
    - _acme 9y ago
      Doesn't iMessage work internationally? iMessage just works. It's beautiful, especially when everyone you know has an iPhone. And I'd say China blocking some services is more China's fault than that of WhatsApp (terrible name).
      - fma 9y ago
        Yes, it works internationally. .. As long as you have a data connection.

The life of SMS is amazing. It went from state of the art technology, to the de facto communication channel for teens and youth, at least in Europe, to being obsolete in less than 25 years!

rusk 9y ago

The beauty of SMS is its serendipity. It was "just there" as an unused network feature and somebody thought to commercialise it. Back in the 90s the telcos were completely caught off guard - this was signalling architecture meant for setup/teardown of calls and other bits and pieces. Overnight a booming cottage industry in SMS Service Centres sprung up to offload all the additional traffic.

staticelf 9y ago

It's not obsolete. It is still the only way you can be pretty sure the recipient receives your message since it works on every phone in circulation. This is used heavily by shops online, postal services etc etc. Many telecom operators also offers basically unlimited texts and calls for a fixed price which makes it often an easier way to communicate than to figure out what service person x is currently on. I use sms way more than I communicate on any other digital service. I would like for everyone to use Signal or something but so far I only have 1 contact there. And by using sms, at least I know it is not indexed and searched by an american company to sell me more ads. Also, I live in a country with large, pretty empty areas. In several of these locations the 3G/4G-networks are often unavailable but sending a simple sms works just fine.

fma 9y ago
I also don't need to ask... Should I contact you on WhatsApp, FB, Wechat, Hangouts, Twitter or whatever the shiny thing of the day is. Just give me your phone number.
- nicoburns 9y ago
  Indeed. It also works reliably internationally. China has blocked Facebook and WhatsApp, but SMS still works.
  - _acme 9y ago
    Doesn't iMessage work internationally? iMessage just works. It's beautiful, especially when everyone you know has an iPhone. And I'd say China blocking some services is more China's fault than that of WhatsApp (terrible name).
    - fma 9y ago
      Yes, it works internationally. .. As long as you have a data connection.