What was the first text message in history?
In 1992, a British programmer ushered in a new age of text communication by sending a test of two words from a computer to a mobile phone.
Today, sending a short message is a simple task; It is enough to pick up the phone and type a few words. But on December 3, 1992, sending a message that had only two words became a turning point in the history of digital communication.
According to Zomit, Neil Papworth, a 22-year-old British programmer, sent the first ever text message through the Vodafone network: Merry Christmas.
This message reached Richard Jarvis, a Vodafone employee; But contrary to what you might think, Papworth didn't send it by cell phone. He sent the message using the computer and Jarvis received the message on his mobile phone. This small difference is an important part of the story that later became one of the most famous moments in mobile phone history.
A simple message that was the beginning of a big change
Papworth was working for the software company Sema Group at that time; A company that participated in the development of the SMS system for Vodafone. The goal of the project was to provide the possibility of sending short messages through the mobile network. The Christmas message was actually a test to make sure the system was working properly, not an attempt to set a historical record.
Three decades ago, cell phones were not designed for texting
Jarvis received the message at the company's Christmas party. The phone on which the message was displayed was a large and heavy device by today's standards; There was no touch keyboard, emoji or messaging apps. At that time, mobile phones were mainly used for voice calls and the idea of text communication over the mobile network had not yet caught on.
Papworth later said that when he sent the message, he had no idea he was marking a historic moment; He just wanted to make sure the software he was working on worked. From his point of view, this message was part of the daily work; But the same experiment became one of the foundations of modern mobile communication.
From SMS of 15 characters to today's communication
Although the first text message was sent in 1992, the ability to send and receive text messages on mobile phones gradually expanded. In 1993, Nokia introduced the ability to receive text messages in one of its phones and considered a specific sound to announce the arrival of the message.
In the early years, users could not easily send SMS between different networks. This restriction was removed in 1999 and the possibility of exchanging messages between different operators helped to expand the use of SMS.
Sending text messages in the first years of the emergence of this technology had many limitations
The technical limitation of early text messages helped to form a new language in everyday communication. Each message usually had a maximum of 160 characters; Therefore, users used abbreviations like LOL to write shorter, and gradually a different way of writing in text messages was formed.
On the other hand, typing with the numeric keyboard of old phones was not as comfortable as writing with today's keyboards, and this encouraged users to use shorter and simpler words.
SMS became one of the main communication tools in the following decades; From personal messages and daily coordination to receiving a one-time password, verifying bank transactions and automatic notifications. Messengers such as WhatsApp and Telegram later transferred a large part of written communication to the Internet, but SMS is still used in many essential services.
Historical message that was sold in NFT form
The importance of the first SMS was so great that Vodafone decided to auction a digital version of this event in 2021. The company released the Merry Christmas message in the form of a non-fungible token, or NFT; A digital asset that records ownership of a specific copy through the blockchain.
In this auction, the buyer would own a digital, reconstructed version of the historic messaging protocol, not the sole owner of the SMS technology itself or the right to use it. The auction was held on December 21, 2021, and €107,000 from its sale was donated to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to help displaced people and refugees.
The story of the first SMS is a reminder that some big technological changes start with very simple things. Papworth's two-word message was neither a complete product for general consumption nor an attempt to change the world; It was considered a successful test to check the performance of a new system. However, the same short message paved the way for a form of communication that has affected the daily lives of billions of people for years.