will text messaging become obsolete?

in the era of the smart phone, people are using apps more and more, with this impacting on standard text messaging.

is the 20 year-long reign of the SMS (Short Message Service) being threatened? 19 billon messages were sent in 2012 via alternate instant messaging services, whilst 17.6 billion SMS were sent. the gap between instant messaging services and SMS may further increase, as Informa, a knowledge providing site, projects the next year to unfold 50 billion messages vs. 21 billion respectively.

interestingly, SMS messages sent in Ireland, the UK and Australia fell from 2.94 billion to 2.15 billion from 2012 to 2013, a fall of 27.6 per cent. this may be down to the wide array of options available to the public. there are many apps on both Android and iPhone which allow instant messaging, as long as the phone is connected to the internet. the most widely used is WhatsApp, which was acquired by Facebook for a record $19 billion on February 19, 2014, and reached 500 million unique users last month.

other similar apps include Kik and Viber, and also iMessage, an inbuilt messanger for the iPhone, which has similar capabilities to that of WhatsApp and the like. these apps have essentially become mobile phone networks in their own right. even services such as Snapchat, Facebook Messenger and Blackberry Messenger allow communication with others, which questions the viability and lifeline of standard texts.

of course, whilst text messaging becomes less and less important in the face of the growing apps market, phone calls are a different story, and are unlikely to diminish.

today, phones are essentially ‘computers for your pocket’. there may come a day where phones are solely used for that purpose, and not for standard texts at all.

several aspects deter people from using SMS to communicate. 160 characters is the maximum amount allowed in one text, and group conversations are not possible. to send a single text from one phone to another in the same region generally costs 13 cent, and to send a picture costs more. this can add up to become excessive amounts.

a free alternative to sending pictures is the widely popular Snapchat, which allows users to send a photo which disappear after a few seconds, whilst group conversations can be started in most instant messengers, with no limit on the number of characters allowed. voice messages have even been recently implemented.

due to the fiery competition between the vast amount of networks such as Meteor and Vodafone, they are pushing network and internet plans in order to compete with each other. free texts are offered for a certain amount of credit bought, but one might wonder that if an application such as Viber is free and more user friendly, why bother with free texts?

according to figures released by Comreg, the average amount spent per Irish user on mobile decreased from €29 to €27 in 2013. this may have occurred as networks have started to bump up prices for credit in many locations; e.g. €5.00 credit now costs €5.30.

this was put down to a number of factors such as reduced consumer spending, lower priced mobile plans, increased sales of bundled products (combining mobile with fixed calls and sometimes broadband) and reductions in mobile roaming and termination rates, among others.

however, there are some points to consider which bolster the lifespan of the standard text message.

text messaging is native to all mobile devices regards of network type, phone manufacturer, operating system, or carrier. almost every phone on the planet is available to receive a text without any problem, and no other data solution comes close to the reach of text messaging, whereas instant messengers require both parties to have internet turned on, which may become a hassle if one person is not connected.

the alternatives to text messaging are fragmented and no clear winner is apparent. each of the previously mentioned apps has varying factors of favourability. while it is true that social applications and other competing data services will encroach on text message, these tools are still very much in their infancy and it is difficult to pick winners and losers among them.

Portio Research says that text messaging will not become obsolete for a very long time. “SMS is not dead. SMS is still the king and will remain so for some time to come”

SMS has even been threatened in the past when multi-media messaging service (MMS) was making a name for itself. unlike text messaging, MMS supported unlimited message length, pictures, video, and audio. some people in the mobile industry speculated that text messaging would go away because MMS was a superior technology. however, five years later, MMS is far behind text messaging in consumer adoption.

many people around the world today have an inbuilt internet plan with their network, and there are increased numbers of wi-fi hotspots throughout the country.

this allows punters to access the internet and communicate to their hearts content. but whether they prefer to use the ‘old fashioned’ SMS is entirely up to themselves. standard messages may not be on the brink yet, and it certainly has strong competition, but it is dealing with it quite well.