When did texting start? Texting Q&A

Texting has become one of the predominant ways people keep in touch with friends and family and is so ingrained in our daily lives that it’s hard to imagine a time when we couldn’t just fire off a quick text. 
So if you’ve ever wondered “when did texting start?” you’re in the right place. In this article we’ll cover when texting was invented, who invented it, and who was the first person to send the “new number who dis?” text… jk on that last one.

Who invented texting? (1984-1992)

The earliest development of texting began in 1984, around the same time as the hit song “Born in the U.S.A.” was topping the charts. Texting was not born in the U.S.A., but was first created as a concept by Friedhelm Hillebrand and Bernard Ghillebaert, two colleagues who worked for the Franco-German corporation GSM (which stands for Global System for Mobile Communications). GSM is still one of the most widely used networks in the world today.

It would still take 15 years before texting would be available on major networks and to the broader public.

Why was texting invented in the first place?

Texting, also known as SMS or Short Message Service, was actually created as a tool for network operators to communicate with one another and send service-related updates. Ironically, texting wasn’t intended for widespread consumer use. So the first network to network update might have been something like, “New network update, who dis?” 

However, in the early 90s, the practicality of it and low cost started to appear like a good idea for mass consumption, especially since cell phones were becoming more commercialized and more popular. And yes, we also find it hard to believe that those early cell phones that were nearly the size of cinderblocks were becoming more and more popular. 

What was the first text ever sent? 

The first text message ever sent was sent on December 3, 1992 and it said “Merry Christmas”. It was sent by Neil Papworth, a 22-year old engineer who was working for Vodafone UK. He was testing the software his company had been working on for over a year and sent the text from a personal computer to the director of Vodafone, who was attending a holiday party. Subtle flex.

It’s unclear if the director replied or if Neil was the first person to get ghosted too.

How did texting evolve into what it is today? (1993-1999)

Texting didn’t evolve overnight. After all, cavemen didn’t walk out of a cave and say “hmu,” or at least no cavemen did that we know of. One of the most pivotal moments in textory, aka texting history, was when the Finnish mobile operator radiolinja (not a band name) enabled the first person-to-person mobile message service in 1994. In other words, you could say they Finnished first in the race to provide SMS on a commercial scale. 

Then, in 1995 GSM service providers started commercializing SMS (aka texting) by launching prepaid text services. At this point, texting wasn’t as popular as, say, the Spice Girls, but it was definitely on its way. Also in 1995, T9 – short for “Text on 9 keys” – was born, which was convenient since most phones didn’t have a full keyboard at this time. Some phones with T9 text also provided “predictive text” and displayed possible word suggestions with a single key press.  

In 1996, the first messaging app, ICQ, was released but wasn’t widely used. WhatsApp, the first app to revolutionize texting on a global scale, didn’t come out until 2009. And in case you were wondering what they looked like, text messages at this time were pretty unsophisticated, with no emojis, character restrictions around 160 characters, and very basic user interfaces. Some networks only allowed users to send text messages to others on the same network, and group chats weren’t a thing yet. 

In 1999, interoperability between different wireless carriers like Verizon and AT&T was enabled, allowing people on both networks to text each other about that new pop singer named Britney Spears.

When did texting become the norm? (2000s) 

In the early 2000s, there was a huge boom in boy bands… with texting sneaking up behind it. The Wall Street Journal called texting “a new fever” among college students, but it hadn’t quite taken the entire world by storm. In 2000, the average SMS subscriber sent a whopping… 35 texts a month. It’s around this time that the birth of LOL, OMG, JK, and ROFL emerged.

The introduction of MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) in 2002, helped increase interest in texting, enabling people to send the first food pics and fit checks. 

From 2001 to 2006 there was a huge surge in texting popularity driven by widespread availability, around the same time as Destiny’s Child, aka Beyoncé’s first band. It was around this time that texting transitioned from a niche interest among college students to a highly popular way to communicate with people without having to make a call. 

In fact, texting was becoming so popular that in 2007, for the first time, the number of texts sent in America surpassed the number of calls (and a phone hasn’t rung since…jk). All of this opened the doors to the eventual rise of messaging platforms like instant messaging apps.

So when did modern texting become what we know it as today? (2010-present)

Modern texting as we know it today really hit the scene with the popularization of the smartphone. The birth of the iPhone and subsequent smartphones revitalized text messaging and provided a range of new functionalities and features such as GIFs, and allowed higher quality pictures and videos, and now audio messages. 

The boom of the iPhone made iMessage an even more popular way to communicate as well as WhatsApp, resulting in constant text communication to be a norm of the present. So if you suffer from notification overwhelm at having so many messages to respond to, blame the smartphone. Although it’s pretty rad when you think about how far technology has come. 

What is the future of texting?  

While we don’t have a crystal ball, we have some ideas of how emerging technology may integrate texting in the future. If Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality continue to grow in popularity, we may see ways to incorporate texting within AR and VR platforms, though we can’t be sure. All we know for sure is that connecting with the people you care about most is here to stay. 

We hope you enjoyed this brief tour of the history of texting. Now that you know how texting started, why not learn more about the history of cell phones too? Or sharpen your texting etiquette for living your best life in 2025. Or if you want to know how to get unlimited talk and text at a fraction of the price of those other guys, learn more about Mint below.