Texting has changed over the past few years. With Android phones‘ adoption of RCS messaging in 2019 and Apple’s reluctant acceptance of the new standard earlier this year in iOS 18, legacy SMS texting is less relevant. Still, SMS is hanging on, especially in the United States. SMS use peaked in the US in 2011 with 2.3 trillion SMS and MMS messages sent. However, the number of SMS messages sent in the US has been relatively stable for over a decade, even as SMS use declines in other markets. So why does the US love SMS texting, and what’s next for the legacy standard?
The technology underpinning early mobile text messaging began development in the 1980s. The short message service (SMS) protocol was implemented in the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) in 1991. The first SMS message sent to a mobile phone was in December 1992 by an engineer for IT services company Sema Group named Neil Papworth (it read “Merry Christmas”). The first commercial SMS service launched in Sweden in 1993.
Text messaging functionality gained traction in the mid-90s. In the early days, text messages could only be sent within a given network. Inter-network SMS didn’t become standard until 1999. That interoperability helped texting become the thing over the next few years, with an estimated 250 billion SMS messages sent by 2002.
Despite popular competing options offering more features (such as iMessage, WhatsApp, and Telegram), SMS texting remains prevalent. There aren’t firm numbers on how many texts are sent daily worldwide. One commonly cited figure claims 23 billion per day as of 2021, but that data seems to stem from a post on TechJury.net that has been updated and no longer makes claims about global SMS use. Statista reports that 2 trillion SMS texts were sent in the US and 49 billion in the UK in 2021.
Everything you wanted to know about SMS, and then some
A prevalent theory floating around the internet says that SMS is disproportionately popular in the US due to past carrier incentives. Unlimited SMS messaging was apparently offered as part of American mobile phone plans earlier and more widely in the US than in other markets. SMS took off in the US, while internet-based messaging platforms like WhatsApp flourished in places like Europe and South America. As the story goes, this set a messaging precedent that’s still in place years later.
Information about phone plans from 30 years ago is hard to find, so that line of reasoning is tricky to prove. It makes sense in theory, but I think additional factors played into SMS’s trajectory over the years.
For one, early SMS texting was simpler for many US users than for people living in places like Europe. Mobile carriers in the US function interoperably nationwide with no unexpected fees. For example, a Verizon customer in New York can send an SMS text to an AT&T customer in Los Angeles without international plan add-ons or penalties. The European Union, meanwhile, only guaranteed price caps for SMS texts sent from one EU country to another in 2019. There are no such considerations with data-based platforms like WhatsApp, which could have spurred its adoption in markets where users are more likely to communicate with people outside their country.
The growing stateside popularity of the iPhone could have played a role. Messages sent between iPhones using iMessage have always used a data connection. Until this year, messages sent from iPhones to other devices relied on SMS. Apple devices have always been disproportionately popular in the US. Still, in SMS-record-setting 2011, nearly one in three active iPhones were used in the United States (115 million devices, up from 60 million the year prior).
The years following iMessage’s 2011 introduction saw a decline in US SMS use, bottoming out at 1.5 trillion texts sent in 2017, per Statista. Even so, iPhone users messaging over iMessage (to each other) and SMS (to everybody else) may have buoyed carrier-based texting in the United States. At the same time, alternatives like WhatsApp gained momentum in markets where the iPhone was less popular and carrier texting was comparatively more complex.
Some confirmation would be nice … maybe a “leave me alone” notification?
While SMS remains popular in the United States, it’s seen a sharp decline year over year in markets like the UK and India. As RCS becomes more universal in the years to come, it seems inevitable that SMS use will decline further worldwide. Still, SMS remains the fallback for RCS and iMessage (in cases where RCS chat isn’t available) and is still the only texting option on many devices, particularly feature phones. So, we don’t expect to see the legacy standard disappear soon.
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Or, most likely the true reason, the US is just far behind in technology than most places in the world.. (Ignoring the fact that it likes to shout that it’s in the lead of technological advances).
Just look at the banking scene.. It’s only 1 step above the middle east who centre around cheques for everything.
We are get getting close to being 2 decades since contactless payments being not just the primary payment system in most of europe but in some places, the only accepted system, and the US is STILL trying to get all the banks on Google Pay.
between the older tech on a lot of phones that carrier-wise or tech-wise won’t support RCS and the issue that there just aren’t that many people in the US who know or care about the differences between RCS and SMS…it’s a traction problem.
Let me know when third party messaging apps gain full RCS support. Until that happens, RCS will remain an also-ran, limited to iMessage and the woefully spartan Google Messages.
“Is the rise of RCS enough to finally end the American love affair with SMS?”
Nope!
There’s more chance of the US adopting the metric system!
That would actually be great!
When I tried to use my GV number in RCS, it wouldn’t accept the number. This was a non-starter for me. So I switched back to SMS and now texting is all screwed up on my phone. THANKS GOOGLE!
I asked Perplexity.ai about the issue and here is the answer I received:
———-
G. Does Google RCS support a Google voice number on Android?
A. Google Voice does not currently support RCS messaging on Android devices[1][2]. Despite Google’s advocacy for RCS adoption across the mobile industry, Google Voice remains limited to traditional SMS/MMS functionality.
Key points regarding Google Voice and RCS:
1. Google Voice lacks RCS support: While Google has implemented RCS in its Google Messages app and Google Fi wireless service, Google Voice has not been updated to include RCS capabilities[1][2].
2. Inconsistency with Google’s RCS push: This lack of RCS support in Google Voice is seen as inconsistent with Google’s broader efforts to promote RCS adoption across the mobile industry[2][4].
3. Limited feature set: Without RCS, Google Voice users miss out on enhanced messaging features like read receipts, typing indicators, high-resolution image sharing, and improved group chat functionality[5].
4. Future-proofing concerns: As RCS becomes more widespread, especially with Apple’s announced support for 2024, Google Voice risks becoming outdated without RCS integration[5].
5. Maintenance mode: Google Voice appears to be in maintenance mode, with little active development occurring on the platform[4].
The absence of RCS support in Google Voice is a significant limitation for users who rely on the service, especially as RCS becomes more prevalent in mobile messaging. Users hoping for RCS functionality with their Google Voice numbers may need to consider alternative messaging solutions or wait for potential future updates to the service.
Yep, in Europe, we still are charged ridiculous fees when texting or calling another country in 2024. Picture 0,3$ per SMS when texting to another US state..?Add the fact that friends and family can live in another country pretty easily, a bit of immigration, and you can see why we switched to data-based services very quickly….
“A prevalent theory floating around the internet says that SMS is disproportionately popular in the US due to past carrier incentives. Unlimited SMS messaging was apparently offered as part of American mobile phone plans earlier and more widely in the US than in other markets..”
I am old enough to confirm this was true. Unlimited text and talk plans were all the rage with carriers. Data, however, was very pricey.
SMS is always there. It comes on every phone, with no need to install and configure another app. I’ve been trying to get WhatsApp working on my Galaxy. It won’t send me the confirmation code, and WhatsApp apparently has zero support, so I’m stuck. And it’s useless unless I convince everyone else I know to install it, too.
In the meantime, the text app that came on the phone works, every time, and I don’t have to know or care if it’s RCS or SMS or whether the recipient has the right phone, or the right app. It’s simple, easy, and functional. Most of us don’t need encrypted text messages. I don’t care if the FBI sees what my wife asked me to buy at the grocery.
I’ve found that when I don’t get confirmation emails or codes, it is often because the service doesn’t like the email you are using. The domain is usually on their blacklist.
Honestly, when your phone comes already loaded with an SMS app and everyone in your family plan already has the same. Why change what works? Plus the fact that the scammers are always trying to get you to move to What’s app so there’s no way to track them down. It makes me reluctant to change to something that makes it easier to get preyed upon.
Why? It works, it’s easy…and..it works! 99.999% of text messages are NOT secretly important so encryption is like… who cares? If you need encryption use WhatsApp. or an equivalent.
Maybe, while RCS and iMessage have emerged as more advanced messaging platforms, SMS and/or MMS still remains a critical communication method for several reasons, but not limited to the fact that many older devices and feature phones still rely on SMS and/or MMS as their primary messaging protocol and not all carriers have fully adopted RCS, especially in certain regions for whatever reasons.
Notwithstanding the issue that some folks who choose to root their device and are banned from utilizing RCS are just another small number of people who choose not to chase the RCS ghost.
RCS chokes from time to time in Google Messages and SMS never does. So, I’m set to SMS only. I mainly need -text- to transmit reliably to whom I’m sending it. No need here for RCS.
It was never a love affair with Americans. It was a love affair with American telecom companies that were lazy!!!! Americans in general have been wanting this for years.
RCS always down on my wifes cellular providers next work. It’s an annoying reminder how basic and dated SMS is.