Is the World of SMS Almost Over?

We live in a world that’s constantly switched on, there’s no denying that. We can keep up to date with everything that’s happening in the world with a quick touch of a screen, but the biggest advent of the technology boom was the ability to stay in contact with each other.

When mobile phones first became accessible to everyone, calling a loved one became simple, and the phone box and home phone slowly died. Soon the internet exploded, and email and SMS services became a dominant part of the lives of both individuals and businesses around the world.

But then something happened that changed everything again; the smartphone.

The Smart Era

With the introduction of the smartphone, the internet well and truly integrated into our lives in a way we had never imagined before. As did our ability to stay in touch.

As soon as we had these portable pocket computers messaging became savvier, from BBM a decade ago to WhatsApp today – we started getting more and more ways to stay in touch.

With the launch of social media, particularly Facebook, our forms of communication changed. Now, where people once abandoned the phone call for the simple SMS, they were now opting to write on someone’s wall or send them a quick tweet. In more recent years Snapchat and Instagram have seen picture messaging take off, bringing a new layer to our messaging world.

Back in 2012 it was even found that people were slowly abandoning text messaging, and it’s no coincidence that this happened the year after Facebook messenger launched.

The End of the SMS?

Of course, Facebook has billions of users around the world, and the messaging app is separate for people to use as a form of communication. Add their ownership of WhatsApp and Instagram into this, and you can see how they’re changing the communication market all around us.

But, texting has stayed, particularly as people with different brands of phone communicate (something that WhatsApp has been chipping away at for years). However, with Google launching Chat as an SMS alternative, it may not be long until we say ‘BRB’ to the text message. Or is it?

We have to remember one key thing to using everything from Chat and iMessage to Messenger, Snapchat, Instagram and Chat – they need the internet. So, if there’s no Wi-Fi, 4G or even 3G, how are they going to help us stay in touch?

Maybe the text isn’t on its way out, and will remain a relic of our former phone selves – always there to help us out in an internet free zone emergency. After all, the house phone is still around, and although not used by all, still has its fans around the world.