Main content

25 years of the text message

The text message is 25 years old. When they were invented, no-one thought texts would take off in the way they did. Texting has given us a whole new language of short forms: lol, btw, tbh, yolo and so on. Ofcom says we’re sending far fewer text messages now than we did five years ago. Texting is being replaced by data messaging – using Instagram and Whatsapp. Matt Pintus reports on the history of the SMS or short message service.

First broadcast on You & Yours, 1 November 2017.

Release date:

Duration:

4 minutes

This clip is from