Texting. This new thing all the young kids are doing these days. It may be the cool think to do but what's the history behind it? Where did the term Texting come from? To answer these questions I took some time and looked into the history of texting and what I found was rather interesting. Let's take a look. According to Wikipedia, Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending brief, electronic messages between two or more mobile phones, or fixed or portable devices over a phone network. The term originally referred to messages sent using the Short Message Service (SMS). It has grown to include messages containing image, video, and sound content (known as MMSmessages). The sender of a text message is known as a texter, while the service itself has different colloquialisms depending on the region.
Now that we know what a text is let's look at it's history. In 1933 RCA Communications, New York introduced the first "telex" service. The first messages over RCA transatlantic circuits were sent between New York and London. Seven million words or 300,000 radiograms transmitted the first year.[citation needed] Alphanumeric messages have long been sent by radio using via Radiotelegraphy. Digital information began being sent using radio as early as 1971 by the University of Hawaii using ALOHA net.[citation needed]
The concept of the SMS (Short Messaging Service) was created by Friedhelm Hillebrand, while he was working for Deutsche Telekom. Sitting at a typewriter at home, Hillebrand typed out random sentences and counted every letter, number, punctuation, and space. Almost every time, the messages amounted to 160 characters, thus being the basis for the limit one could type via text. With Bernard Ghillebaert of France Télécom, he developed a proposal for the GSM group meeting in February 1985 in Oslo.The first technical solution was developed in a GSM subgroup under the leadership of Finn Trosby. It was further developed under the leadership of Kevin Holley and Ian Harris.
I think most of you out there reading this already know what text messaging is used for. Being able to send quick messages to anyone without having to pick up a phone and call them.
The first text message was sent in 1992 from Neil Papworth, a former developer at Sema Group Telecoms. Mobile phones didn't have keyboards at the time, so Papworth had to type the message on a PC. Papworth's text "Merry Christmas" was successfully sent to Richard Jarvis at Vodafone.
Like any new technology, initial growth for SMS was slow. The average American user sent 0.4 texts per month in 1995. Gradually, phones and networks adapted to better accommodate SMS. In 1999, texts could finally be exchanged between different networks, which increased its usefulness. By 2000, the average number of text messages sent in the U.S. increased to 35 a month per person. The first, most common method of commercial texting is referred to as "multi-tap." Each number on the phone is connected to three or four letters. For example, the "3" key displays "D," "E" and "F." Multi-tap is easy to understand, but not very efficient.
I think most of you out there reading this already know what text messaging is used for. Being able to send quick messages to anyone without having to pick up a phone and call them.
The first text message was sent in 1992 from Neil Papworth, a former developer at Sema Group Telecoms. Mobile phones didn't have keyboards at the time, so Papworth had to type the message on a PC. Papworth's text "Merry Christmas" was successfully sent to Richard Jarvis at Vodafone.
Like any new technology, initial growth for SMS was slow. The average American user sent 0.4 texts per month in 1995. Gradually, phones and networks adapted to better accommodate SMS. In 1999, texts could finally be exchanged between different networks, which increased its usefulness. By 2000, the average number of text messages sent in the U.S. increased to 35 a month per person. The first, most common method of commercial texting is referred to as "multi-tap." Each number on the phone is connected to three or four letters. For example, the "3" key displays "D," "E" and "F." Multi-tap is easy to understand, but not very efficient.
In the 1990s, Tegic co-founder Cliff Kushler invented T9, short for "Text on 9 keys." Instead of multi-tapping, predictive text technology displays words from a single keypress. As T9 becomes familiar with the words and phrases commonly used by the texter, they become correspondent in order of frequency. In 2011, Kushler invented Swype, a texting feature for touchscreens that enables users to drag their fingers to connect the dots between letters in a word.
So next time you send your significant other or your family/friends a text remember just new this is!
