SMS Milestone - 25 Years Old This Week!

This week marks a milestone in communication technology with the 25th birthday of the SMS (short messaging service). The text message has had quite the journey since the inception of the idea in 1984 by Friedhelm Hillebrand and Bernard Ghillebaert to become the most successful communications platform of all time.

In the early days of the text message things were very different. There was no alphabetical keypad on a touchscreen smart device and the thought of getting a free text to any person on any network sounded like a thing of fiction. The question “what network are you on?” was constantly muttered in an effort to desperately protect one’s credit balance in the early days. Thankfully those days are well behind us!

The advent of the T9 system of writing text using a number keypad made texting a much simpler task and one universally accessible to anyone with a mobile phone. The system was so innovative that it was quickly adopted by all the major players in the industry.

The big game changer for the SMS was in 1999 when mobile operators allowed their customers to send texts to people on different carrier networks. This made the SMS a viable modern day communications platform that could connect people the world over.

By 2007 the text message was the most successful communications platform of all time. This was also the year that the first iPhone was launched and soon smartphones and instant messaging apps were predicted to be the downfall of the SMS.

Despite this prediction SMS has five billion users today and this number is growing. The humble text message has not only allowed us to communicate with the people we know, it has paved the way for innovations in a number of industries. None more so than in the charity sector where texting has been at the forefront of fundraising campaigns.

For LIKECHARITY the power of a text message cannot be under-estimated. LIKECHARITY broke down the barriers that made the text message a cost-effective means of fundraising for charities and today Irish charities have raised over €7,000,000 through our Text-To-Donate platform.

For more information on LIKECHARITY’s Text-To-Donate platform contact deirdre.mullen@likecharity.com.