Neil Papworth, a 22-year-old test engineer for Sema Group (now Airwide Solutions), sent the first text message to a mobile phone on December 3, 1992. It was from his personal computer to the Vodafone network to the phone of Richard Jarvis.

The text message read “Merry Christmas” (note, the message wasn’t abbreviated as it would most likely be now, more than 25 years after this first text).

Omnipoint Communications, the first GSM (global system for mobile) carrier in America, set up the first text messaging service in the United States. Omnipoint soon offered the first texting between the US and the rest of the world, starting a 160 character micro-blog trend that Twitter would make even more popular (Twitter had a 140 character limit and has now expanded to 280).

Initial growth of text messaging and SMS (short messaging services) was slow. Indeed, in 1995 only 0.4 messages per GSM customer were sent on average per month. Texting was in part held back by billing confusion from operators. However, it is estimated that by 2011, revenue for operators from texting topped $585 billion.

Also in 2011, the Oxford Dictionary added the common texting acronym “LOL” (laughing out loud or laugh out loud) to its listing.

Texting has become so prominent in everyday life that the Emily Post Institute offers etiquette tips for texting. A downside of its popularity is that texting while driving has been rated more dangerous than drinking and driving in the United States.

Recent statistics show that more than 560 billion SMS texts are sent monthly all over the world, and when combined with instant messenger apps, over 60 billion messages are sent each day. SMS has also become a preferred method for reminders and alerts, for everything from medical appointments to weather warnings.

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For more moments in tech history, see this blog. EDN strives to be historically accurate with these postings. Should you see an error, please notify us.

Editor’s note : This article was originally posted on December 3, 2012 and edited on December 2, 2019.