The text message is celebrating its 30th birthday - and still retains its popularity with people of all generations, research shows. Almost one in three Britons still send and receive SMS texts every day.
Despite a wide range of other methods of communication now being available, including services such as WhatsApp, instant messaging apps such as Skype, and a range of social media platforms, 20% of people still use SMS as their default messaging platform. The figures come from communications firm Infobip.
Data show that 30% of people surveyed said they sent text messages daily – with 54% saying they used SMS as a way of reaching people who were not on other messaging platforms. The first text message was sent by engineer Neil Papworth 30 years ago today, on December 3 1992, and read simply: “Merry Christmas”.
