Text messaging

Someone writing a text message on a mobile device with a QWERTY keyboard.

Text messaging, or texting is the common term for the sending of "short" (160 characters or fewer, including spaces) text messages from mobile phones using the Short Message Service (SMS). It is available on most digital mobile phones and some personal digital assistants with on-board wireless telecommunications. The individual messages which are sent are called text messages, or in the more colloquial text speak texts.

SMS gateways exist to connect mobile SMS services with instant message (IM) services, the world wide web, desktop computers, and even landline telephones (through speech synthesis). Devices which can connect to mobile phones and PDAs through protocols such as Bluetooth can also sometimes use that link to send SMS messages over the wireless network. SMS arose as part of the widely deployed GSM protocol, but is now also available with non-GSM systems.

The most common application of the service is person-to-person messaging, but text messages are also often used to interact with automated systems, such as ordering products and services for mobile phones, or participating in contests. There are some services available on the Internet that allow users to send text messages free of direct charge to the sender.

History

For a technical history of the Short Message Service, see Short message service.

Many companies have claimed to have sent the very first text message but according to a former employee of NASA Edward Lantz, the first was sent via one simple 1989 Motorola beeper in 1989 by Raina Fortini from New York City to Melbourne Beach, Florida using upside down numbers that could be read as words and sounds. The first commercial SMS message was sent over the Vodafone GSM network in the United Kingdom on 3 December 1992, from Neil Papworth of Sema Group (using a personal computer) to Richard Jarvis of Vodafone (using an Orbitel 901 handset). The text of the message was "Merry Christmas". The first SMS typed on a GSM phone is claimed to have been sent by Riku Pihkonen, an engineer student at Nokia, in 1993.

Initial growth of text messaging was slow,(since it was originally designed for deaf and hard of hearing people) with customers in 1995 sending on average only 0.4 messages per GSM customer per month. One factor in the slow takeup of SMS was that operators were slow to set up charging systems, especially for prepaid subscribers, and eliminate billing fraud which was possible by changing SMSC settings on individual handsets to use the SMSCs of other operators. Over time, this issue was eliminated by switch-billing instead of billing at the SMSC and by new features within SMSCs to allow blocking of foreign mobile users sending messages through it. By the end of 2000, the average number of messages per user reached 35.

The first web text messaging portal was invented in Doncaster, England by e2sms. Beta tested in 1996 and launched in 1997/1998 it offer two sms from mobile phones to email or via a web portal. It also offered the first commercial advertising service, sending 50,000 SMS's per month with servers in the UK, Chile and Switzerland. They initially used Vodaphones free -dialin- service but eventually hacked the orange gateway.

It is also alleged that the fact that roaming customers, in the early days, rarely received bills for their SMSs after holidays abroad had a boost on text messaging as an alternative to voice calls. A plethora of sites capable of sending text messages from the internet have sprung up in the past couple years.

SMS was originally designed as part of GSM, but is now available on a wide range of networks, including 3G networks. However, not all text messaging systems use SMS, and some notable alternate implementations of the concept include J-Phone's "SkyMail" and NTT Docomo's "Short Mail", both in Japan. E-mail messaging from phones, as popularized by NTT Docomo's i-mode and the RIM BlackBerry, also typically use standard mail protocols such as SMTP over TCP/IP.

Today text messaging is the most widely used mobile data service on the planet, with 72% of all mobile phone users worldwide or 1.9 Billion out of 2.7 Billion phone subscribers at end of 2006 being active users of the Short Message Service (SMS). In countries like Finland, Sweden and Norway over 90% of the population use SMS. The European average is about 85% and North America is rapidly catching up with over 40% active users of SMS by end of 2006. The largest average usage of the service by mobile phone subscribers is in the Philippines with an average of 15 texts sent per day by subscriber. In Singapore the average is 12 and in South Korea 10.

Text messaging was reported to have addictive tendencies by the Global Messaging Survey by Nokia in 2001 and was confirmed to be addictive by the study at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium in 2004. Since then the study at the Queensland University of Australia has found that text messaging is the most addictive digital service on mobile or internet, and is equivalent in addictiveness to cigarette smoking. The text reception habit introduces a need to remain connected, called "Reachability".

Technical details

Main article: Short message service

Received and displayed SMS message on a Motorola RAZR handset.

Messages are sent to a Short Message Service Centre (SMSC) which provides a store-and-forward mechanism. It attempts to send messages to their recipients. If a recipient is not reachable, the SMSC queues the message for later retry. Some SMSCs also provide a "forward and forget" option where transmission is tried only once. Message delivery is best effort, so there are no guarantees that a message will actually be delivered to its recipient and delay or complete loss of a message is not uncommon, particularly when sending between networks. Users may choose to request delivery reports, which can provide positive confirmation that the message has reached the intended recipient, but notifications for failed deliveries are unreliable at best.

Transmission of the short messages between SMSC and phone can be done through different protocols such as SS7 within the standard GSM MAP framework or TCP/IP within the same standard. Limitations of the messages used within these protocols result in the maximum single text message size of either 160 7-bit characters, 140 8-bit characters, or 70 16-bit characters. Characters in languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Japanese or Slavic languages (e.g., Russian) must be encoded using the 16-bit UCS-2 character encoding (see Unicode).

Larger content (known as long SMS or concatenated SMS) can be sent segmented over multiple messages, in which case each message will start with a user data header (UDH) containing segmentation information. Since the segmentation information is carried within the text message, the number of characters per segment is lower: 153 for 7-bit encoding, 134 for 8-bit encoding and 67 for 16-bit encoding. The receiving phone is responsible for reassembling the message and presenting it to the user as one long message. While the standard theoretically permits up to 255 segments, 6 to 8 segment messages are the practical maximum, and long messages are often billed as equivalent to multiple SMS messages.

Some service providers offer the ability to send messages to land line telephones regardless of their capability of receiving text messages by automatically phoning the recipient and reading the message aloud using a speech synthesizer along with the number of the sender.

Text Messaging Gateway Providers

SMS gateway providers facilitate the SMS traffic between businesses and mobile subscribers, being mainly responsible for carrying mission-critical messages, SMS for enterprises, content delivery and entertainment services involving SMS, e.g. TV voting. Considering SMS messaging performance and cost, as well as the level of text messaging services, SMS gateway providers can be classified as the cell phone aggregators or SS7 providers.

The aggregator model is based on multiple agreements with mobile carriers to exchange 2-way SMS traffic into and out of the operator’s SMS platform (Short Message Service Centre – SMS-C), also known as local termination model. Aggregators lack direct access into the SS7 protocol, which is the protocol where the SMS messages are exchanged. These providers have no visibility and control over the message delivery, being unable to offer delivery guarantees. SMS messages are delivered in the operator’s SMS-C, but not the subscriber’s handset.

Another type of SMS gateway provider is based on SS7 connectivity to route SMS messages, also known as international termination model. The advantage of this model is the ability to route data directly through SS7, which gives the provider total control and visibility of the complete path during the SMS routing. This means SMS messages can be sent directly to and from recipients without having to go through the SMS-Centres of other mobile operators. Therefore, it’s possible to avoid delays and message losses, offering full delivery guarantees of messages and optimised routing. This model is particularly efficient when used in mission-critical messaging and SMS used in corporate communications.

The University of Duisburg-Essen, in partnership with mobile messaging provider Tyntec, have developed the study for SMS messaging to enable the detailed monitoring of SMS transmissions to ensure a greater degree of reliability and a higher average speed of delivery.[1] The new parameters can be used by mobile network operators, third party SMS gateways and mobile network infrastructure software vendors to monitor the transmission of SMS messages and to detect network transmission problems quickly and accurately. Based on this study, Tyntec developed relevant Service Level Agreement (SLA) to support the delivery of high quality messaging applications to enterprises, banks and financial institutions and various industry sectors.

Premium content

SMS is widely used for delivering digital content such as news alerts, financial information, logos and ringtones. Such messages are also known as premium-rated short messages (PSMS). The subscribers are charged extra for receiving this premium content, and the amount is typically divided between the mobile network operator and the value added service provider (VASP) either through revenue share or a fixed transport fee. Services like 82ASK and Any Question Answered have used the PSMS model to enable rapid response to mobile consumers' questions, using on-call teams of experts and researchers.

Premium short messages are increasingly being used for "real-world" services. For example, some vending machines now allow payment by sending a premium-rated short message, so that the cost of the item bought is added to the user's phone bill or subtracted from the user's prepaid credits. Recently, premium messaging companies have come under fire from consumer groups due to a large number of consumers racking up huge phone bills. Some mobile networks, now require users to call their provider to enable premium messages from reaching their handset.

A new type of 'free premium' or 'hybrid premium' content has emerged with the launch of text-service websites. These sites allow registered users to receive free text messages when items they are interested go on sale, or when new items are introduced.

An alternative to inbound SMS is based on Long numbers (international number format, e.g., +44 7624 805000), which can be used in place of short codes / premium-rated short messages for SMS reception in several applications, such as TV voting, product promotions and campaigns. Long numbers are internationally available, as well as enabling businesses to have their own number, rather than short codes which are usually shared across a lot of brands. Additionally, Long numbers are non-premium inbound numbers.

Popularity

SMS services are popular in part due to their ubiquity.

Short message services are developing very rapidly throughout the world. In 2000, just 17 billion SMS messages were sent; in 2001, the number was up to 250 billion, and 500 billion SMS messages in 2004. At an average cost of USD 0.10 per message, this generates revenues in excess of $50 billion for mobile telephone operators and represents close to 100 text messages for every person in the world.

SMS is particularly popular in Europe, Asia (excluding Japan; see below), Australia and New Zealand. Popularity has grown to a sufficient extent that the term texting (used as a verb meaning the act of mobile phone users sending short messages back and forth) has entered the common lexicon.

In China, SMS is very popular, and has brought service providers significant profit (18 billion short messages were sent in 2001). It is a very influential and powerful tool in the Philippines, where the average user sends 10-12 text messages a day . The Philippines alone sends on the average 400 million text messages a day or approximately 142 billion text messages sent a year, more than the annual average SMS volume of the countries in Europe, and even China and India. SMS is hugely popular in India, where youngsters often exchange lots of text messages, and companies provide alerts, infotainment, news, cricket scores update, railway/airline booking, mobile billing, and banking services on SMS.

In 2001, text messaging played an important role in deposing former Philippine president Joseph Estrada. Similarly, in 2008, text messaging played a primary role in the implication of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in an SMS sex scandal.

Short messages are particularly popular amongst young urbanites. In many markets, the service is comparatively cheap. For example, in Australia a message typically costs between AUD 0.20 and AUD 0.25 to send (some pre-paid services charge AUD 0.01 between their own phones), compared with a voice call, which costs somewhere between AUD 0.40 and AUD 2.00 per minute (commonly charged in half-minute blocks). Despite the low cost to the consumer, the service is enormously profitable to the service providers. At a typical length of only 190 bytes (incl. protocol overhead), more than 350 of these messages per minute can be transmitted at the same data rate as a usual voice call (9 kbit/s).

Mobile Service Providers in New Zealand, such as Vodafone and Boost Mobile, provide up to 2000 SMS messages for NZ$10 per month. Users on these plans send on average 1500 SMS messages every month.

Text messaging has become so popular that advertising agencies and advertisers are now jumping into the text message business. Services that provide bulk text message sending are also becoming a popular way for clubs, associations, and advertisers to quickly reach a group of opt-in subscribers. This advertising has proven to be extremely effective, but some insiders worry that advertisers may abuse the power of mobile marketing and it will someday be considered spam.

Europe

SMS is used to send "welcome" messages to mobile phones roaming between countries. Here, T-Mobile welcomes a Proximus subscriber to the UK and BASE welcomes an Orange UK customer to Belgium.

Europe follows next behind Asia in terms of the popularity of the use of SMS. In 2003, an average of 16 billion messages were sent each month. Users in Spain sent a little more than fifty messages per month on average in 2003. In Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom the figure was around 35–40 SMS messages per month. In each of these countries the cost of sending an SMS message varies from as little as £0.03–£0.18 depending on the payment plan. Curiously France has not taken to SMS in the same way, sending just under 20 messages on average per user per month. France has the same GSM technology as other European countries so the uptake is not hampered by technical restrictions.

In the Republic of Ireland, a total of 1.5 billion messages are sent every quarter, on average 114 messages per person per month. Whilst in the United Kingdom over 1 billion text messages are sent every week.

The Eurovision Song Contest organized the first pan-European SMS-voting in 2002, as a part of the voting system (there was also a voting over traditional phone lines). In 2005, the Eurovision Song Contest organized the biggest televoting ever (with SMS and phone voting).

United States

In the United States, text messaging is also popular; as reported by CITA, the average number of text messages sent per subscriber per month was 188. In the US, SMS is often charged both at the sender and at the destination, but it cannot be rejected or dismissed, as opposed to the phone calls. The reasons for this are varied—many users have unlimited "mobile-to-mobile" minutes, high monthly minute allotments, or unlimited service. Moreover, push to talk services offer the instant connectivity of SMS and are typically unlimited. Furthermore, the integration between competing providers and technologies necessary for cross-network text messaging has only been available recently. Some providers originally charged extra to enable use of text, further reducing its usefulness and appeal. The relative popularity of e-mail-based devices such as the BlackBerry in North America may be a response to the weakness of text messaging there, but these further weaken the appeal of texting among the users most likely to use it. However the addition of AT&T-powered SMS voting on the television program American Idol has introduced many Americans to SMS, and usage is on the rise. In the third quarter of 2006, at least 10 billion text messages crossed AT&T's network, up almost 15 percent from the preceding quarter.

In the United States, while texting is widely popular among the ages of 10-25 years old, it is increasing among adults and business users as well. According to both the Mobile Marketing Association and Pew Internet & American Life Project Surveys, 40% of US Mobile phone users text. The split by age group is as follows: 13-24's: 80% text, 18-27's 63% text, 28-39's: 31% text, 40-49's: 18% text. The amount of texts being sent in the United States has gone up over the years as the price has gone down to an average of $0.10 per text sent and received. Many providers also will make unlimited texting available for a lower price.

In order to convince more customers to include text messaging plans some major cell phone providers have recently increased the price to send and receive text messages from $0.15 - $0.20 a message  :{+:)rtb517

Finland

In addition to SMS voting, a different phenomenon has risen in more mobile-phone-saturated countries. In Finland some TV channels began "SMS chat", which involved sending short messages to a phone number, and the messages would be shown on TV a while later. Chats are always moderated, which prevents sending harmful material to the channel. The craze soon became popular and evolved into games, first slow-paced quiz and strategy games. After a while, faster paced games were designed for television and SMS control. Games tend to involve registering one's nickname, and after that sending short messages for controlling a character on screen. Messages usually cost 0.05 to 0.86 Euro apiece, and games can require the player to send dozens of messages. In December 2003, a Finnish TV-channel, MTV3, put a Santa character on air reading aloud messages sent in by viewers. More recent late-night attractions on the same channel include "Beach Volley", in which the bikini-clad female hostess blocks balls "shot" by short message. On March 12 2004, the first entirely "interactive" TV-channel "VIISI" began operation in Finland. That did not last long though, as SBS Finland Oy took over the channel and turned it into a music channel named "The Voice" in November 2004.

In 2006, the Prime Minister of Finland, Matti Vanhanen, made front page news when he allegedly broke up with his girlfriend with a text message.

In 2007, the first text message only book, which is about a business executive who travels throughout Europe and India, was published by a Finnish author.

Japan

Japan was among the first countries to widely adopt short messages, with pioneering non-GSM services including J-Phone's "SkyMail" and NTT Docomo's "Short Mail". However, short messaging has been largely rendered obsolete by the prevalence of mobile Internet e-mail, which can be sent to and received from any e-mail address, mobile or otherwise. That said, while usually presented to the user simply as a uniform "mail" service (and most users are unaware of the distinction), the operators may still internally transmit the content as short messages, especially if the destination is on the same network.

Philippines

The Philippines is known as the ‘text capital of the world’. ‘Presently each mobile phone user in the Philippines is sending out at least 10 text messages a day compared to about 3 text messages per user in the United Kingdom (Pertierra 2005a; cf. Ling 2004). About one Filipino in two is a subscriber to a mobile phone service.

At the end of 2007 four of the top mobile phone service providers in the country stated there were 42.78 million mobile phone subscribers in the Philippines

One of the main reasons text messages became so popular in the Philippines is the affordability. In addition, text messaging was generally more reliable compared to a fixed phone line or relying on poor mobile phone coverage that included drop-outs.

Morse code

A few widely publicised speed contests have been held between expert Morse code operators and expert SMS users. Several mobile phones have Morse code ring tones and alert messages. For example, many Nokia mobile phones have an option to beep "S M S" in Morse code when it receives a short message. Some of these phones could also play the Nokia slogan "Connecting people" in morse code as a message tone. There are third-party applications available for some mobile phones that allow Morse input for short messages.

Spam

In 2002, an increasing trend towards spamming mobile phone users through SMS prompted cellular service carriers to take steps against the practice, before it became a widespread problem. No major spamming incidents involving SMS had been reported as of March 2007, but the existence of mobile-phone spam has been noted by industry watchdogs, including Consumer Reports magazine and the Utility Consumers' Action Network (UCAN). In 2005, UCAN brought a case against Sprint for spamming its customers and charging $0.10 per text message. The case was settled in 2006 with Sprint agreeing not to send customers Sprint advertisements via SMS.

SMS expert Acision (used to be LogicaCMG Telecoms) reported a new type of SMS-malice at the end of 2006, noting the first instances of SMiShing (a cousin to email phishing scams). In SMiShing, users receive SMS messages posing to be from a company, enticing users to phone premium rate numbers, or reply with personal information.

Text speak

Main article: SMS language

This sticker seen in Paris satirizes the popularity of communication in SMS shorthand. In French: "Is that you? / It's me! / Do you love me? / Shut up!"

The small phone keypad caused a number of adaptations of spelling, as in the phrase "txt msg", or use of CamelCase, such as in "ThisIsVeryCool". To avoid the even more limited message lengths allowed when using Cyrillic or Greek letters, speakers of languages written in those alphabets often use the Latin alphabet for their own language.

Historically, this language developed out of shorthand used in Bulletin Board Systems and later in internet chatrooms, where users would abbreviate some words to allow a response to be typed more quickly, though the amount of time saved is often inconsequential. However, this became much more pronounced in SMS, where mobile phone users don't generally have access to a QWERTY keyboard as computer users did, more effort is required to type each character, and there is a limit on the number of characters that may be sent.

In Mandarin Chinese, numbers that sound similar to words are used in place of those words. For example, the numbers 520 in Chinese ("wu er ling") sound like the words for "I love you" ("wo ai ni"). The sequence 748 ("qi si ba") sounds like the curse for "drop dead".

Predictive text software that attempts to guess words (AOL/Tegic's T9 as well as iTAP) or letters (Eatoni's LetterWise) reduces the labour of time-consuming input. This makes abbreviations not only less necessary, but slower to type than regular words which are in the software's dictionary. However it does make the messages longer, often requiring the text message to be sent in multiple parts and therefore costing more to send.

Website portals such as transl8it have supported a community of users to help standardize this text speak by allowing users to submit translations, staking claim with their user handle, or to submit top messages and guess the lingo phrases. The international popularity of this portal resulted in late 2005 the publishing of the transl8it! dxNRE & glosRE (dictionary & glossary) as the worlds first, and most complete, SMS and text lingo book.

Some commonly used acronyms on texting are:

• 2: To or Too
• 4: For
• 4evr: Forever
• c:see
• cus: Because
• cuz: because or cousin
• ne1: Anyone
• ez: Easy
• b4: Before
• 2nite: Tonight
• brb: Be Right Back
• gtg or g2g: Got To Go
• ttyl: Talk To You Later
• cyl: See You Later
• bfd: Big Fucking Deal
• btw: by the way
• bbl: Be back later
• idk: I Don't Know
• idc: I Don't Care
• lol: Laugh(ing) Out Loud
• rofl: Rolls On Floor Laugh(ing)
• lq2ms:Laugh(ing) quietly to myself
• stfu: Shut The Fuck Up
• omg: Oh My God (or Gosh)
• omfg: Oh My Fucking God
• lmao: Laugh(ing) My Ass Off
• lmfao: Laugh(ing) My Fucking Ass Off
• lylas: Love you like a sister
• lylab: Love you like a brother
• k or kk: Okay
• jk: Just Kidding
• jp: Just Playing
• jw: Just Wondering
• wth: What The Hell
• wtf: What the Fuck
• 143 or <3: I love you
• luv: love
• ily: I Love You
• w/e: Whatever
• ttly: Totally
• ttyl: talk to you later
• ttfn: Ta Ta For Now
• w8: Wait
• h8: Hate
• l8: Late
• l8r: Later
• ty: Thank You
• thnks, thnx, or thx: Thanks
• r: Are
• u: You
• ppl: People
• 4nd: Friend
• qt: Cutie
• zzz: Sleeping, Bored, Tired
• HHRT: Hit Hard Right Through
• IMO: In My Opinion
• BFF: Best Friend Forever

Social impact of SMS

SMS has caused subtle but interesting changes in society and language since it became popular. It has shown a change in students' academics as well as the law enforcment. SMS messages have caused a social impact and have changed the political campaign. SMS messaging has caused a change in social development as well.

Academic impact

Text messaging has put an impact on students academically, by creating an easier way to cheat on exams. In December 2002, a cheating scheme was uncovered during final-exam week at the University of Maryland, College Park. A dozen students were caught cheating on an accounting exam through the use of text messages on their mobile phones.Teachers are finding it more difficult to keep track of their students cheating in the classroom. First there was plagiarism, but now students use text messaging to get answer keys during class. In December 2002, Hitotsubashi University in Japan failed 26 students for receiving e-mailed exam answers on their mobile phones.Text language is becoming an increasing practice in classes and exams., and students aren't paying attention in class enough because they are text messaging. Teachers and professors are beginning to have a hard time controlling the problem.

Criminal impact

Not only has text messaging had an impact in schools, but also on police forces around the world. A British company developed, in June of 2003, a program called Fortress SMS for Symbian phones. This program used 128 bit AES encryption to protect SMS messages. Police have also retrieved deleted messages to frame cult member Sara Svensson after confessing to murdering the wife of pastor Helge Fossmo and having shot his lover's husband Daniel Linde in Knutby, Sweden. They traced the messages because she said she had acted anonymously on text forwards received in her phone.

Police in Tilburg, the Netherlands, started an SMS alert program where they would send a message to ask citizens to be vigilant when a burglar was on the loose or a child was missing in their neighborhood. Several thieves have been caught and children found using the "SMS Alerts". The service has been expanding rapidly to other cities."News", nu.nl, 2005-11-07. (Dutch) A Malaysian/Australian company released its "Crypto for Criminals" multi-layer SMS security program called CryptoSMS. Text messages can really help police stop crime because it is a secret way of getting out an s.o.s. Boston police are now turning to text messaging to help stop crime. They have an anonymous program where you can text in a crime tip anonymously to help stop crime rates.

Social Unrest

Texting has been used on a number of occasions with the result of the gathering of large aggressive crowds. SMS messaging drew a crowd to Cronulla Beach in Sydney, in response to attacks on Lifeguards and the general disruption to the beach community, resulting in the 2005 Cronulla riots. Not only were text messages circulating in the Sydney area, but in other states as well (Daily Telegraph). The volume of such text messages and emails also increased in the wake of the riot. The crowd of 5000 at stages became violent, attacking certain ethnic groups. Sutherland Shire Mayor directly blamed heavily circulated SMS messages for the unrest.NSW police considered whether people could be charged over the texting Retaliatory attacks also used SMS.

The Narre Warren Incident, where a group of 500 party goers attended a party at Narre Warren in Melbourne Australia and rioted in January 2008, also was a response of communication being spread by SMS and Myspace. Following the Incident, the Police Commissioner wrote an open letter asking young people to be aware of the power of SMS and the internet. In Hong Kong, government officials find that text messaging helps socially because they can send multiple texts to the community. Officials say it is an easy way of contacting community or individuals for meetings or events.

Political impact

Text messaging has had a major impact on the political world. American campaigns find that text messaging is a much easier, cheaper way of getting to the voters than the door to door approach. Mexico's president-elect Felipe Calderón launched millions of text messages in the days immediately preceding his narrow win over Andres Manuel Lopez Obradór. In January 2001, Joseph Estrada was forced to resign from the post of president of the Philippines. The popular campaign against him was widely reported to have been co-ordinated with SMS chain letters. A massive texting campaign was credited with boosting youth turnout in Spain's 2004 parliamentary elections.

Text messaging has been used to turn down other political leaders.During the 2004 US Democratic and Republican National Conventions, protestors used an SMS based organizing tool called TXTmob to get to opponents. In the last day before the 2004 presidential elections in Romania, a message against Adrian Nastase was largely circulated, thus breaking the laws that prohibited campaigning that day. No action was taken.

Text messaging has helped politics by promoting campaigns.In 2006, the Scottish Socialist Party initiated a campaign for people to text the First minister Jack McConnell to demonstrate their support for free school meals. SMS messages were used by Chinese nationalists to rapidly spread word of the time and location of demonstrations during the 2005 anti-Japanese demonstrations.Political organisations such as Cymru X, the Plaid Cymru youth wing, and the Young Scots for Independence, the youth wing of the Scottish National Party, have used a "text referendum" to gain public support and raise the profile of their respective causes.

Society

Text messaging has turned up in other aspects of our society. A Malaysian court had ruled that it is legal to divorce through the use of text messaging as long as you are clear and unequivocal. In November 2006, New Zealand Qualifications Authority approved the move that allowed students of secondary schools to use mobile phone text in the end of the year exam papers.

The use of text messaging has changed the way that people talk and write essays, some believing it to be harmful.

The Guinness Book of World Records has a world record for text message, currently held by Ang Chuang Yang of Singapore. Mr. Ang keyed in the official text messaging sentence, as established by Guinness, in 41.52 seconds.

Elliot Nicholls of Dunedin, New Zealand currently holds the World Record for the fastest blindfolded text messaging. A record of a 160 letter text in 45 seconds while blindfolded was set on the 17th of November 2007, beating the old record of 1 minute 26 seconds set by an Italian during September 2006.

Business

The use of text messaging for business purposes has grown significantly during the mid '00's. As companies seek competitive advantages, many employees turn to new technology, collaborative applications, and real-time messaging like SMS, instant messaging, and mobile communications. Some practical uses of text messaging include the use of SMS for sending alerts (e.g. "The phone system is down"), for confirming delivery or other tasks, and for instant communication between a service provider and a client (e.g. stock broker and investor).

As text messaging has proliferated in business, so too have regulations governing its use. In highly regulated industries like financial services, energy and commodities trading, and health care, government regulations have steadily kept pace with technology innovations and now address the need to supervise and archive employee text messages. For example, regulations on financial companies have been updated and modernized many times since the 1934 Securities Exchange Act, and now include regulations like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, SEC 17a-3, and others. One regulation specifically governing the use of text messaging in financial services firms engaged in stocks, equities, and securities trading is Regulatory Notice 07-59, Supervision of Electronic Communications, December 2007, issued to member firms by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. In 07-59, FINRA noted that "electronic communications", "email", and "electronic correspondence" may be used interchangeably and can include such forms of electronic messaging as instant messaging and text messaging. New technology has been developed to allow companies to archive text messages by companies like Akonix Systems, CommonDesk, GWAVA, and Onset Technology, with some, like Akonix's, being integrated with archiving of many other electronic messaging media, while others, like Onset's are components of mobile messaging applications rather than policy and compliance applications.

Anxiety surrounding texting

The number of students caught using mobile phones to cheat on exams has increased significantly in recent years. According to Okada (2005), most Japanese mobile phones can send and receive long text messages of between 250 and 3000 characters with graphics, video, audio, and web links. In England, 287 school and college students were excluded from exams in 2004 for using mobile phones during exams. Some teachers and professors claim that advanced texting features can lead to students cheating on exams.

Spreading rumors and gossip by text is also an issue of great concern. Text "bullying" of this sort can cause distress and damage reputations. Harding and Rosenberg (2005) argue that the urge to forward text messages seems difficult to resist, describing text messages as "loaded weapons". Text receivers are wise to not readily believe text messages from anyone they do not know, and in some cases, from those that they do know because the person on the other end might not be the person they expect. this misconception commonly happens because text messagers cannot see or hear the person they contact on the other end.

See also

• Telegram
• MMS
• Instant Messaging

Details

• Short message service
• Short code
• SMS gateways (sending SMSes to or from devices other than cellphones)
• Reverse SMS billing

Related technology

• BlackBerry
• Instant message
• T-Mobile Sidekick
• Mobile development (platforms for creating mobile applications)
• Zlango

Social aspects

• Shorthand
• Dutton Speedwords (shorthand system)
• Mobile Marketing

External links

• Bringing about a better quality of SMS
• Template:PDFlink
• Information on Text Messaging SMS Services and how they work on YouTube
• Documentary on Texting on YouTube
• Video on Texting from Microsoft Outlook on YouTube