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Jai Ganesh

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Short Message Service

Short Message Service (SMS)

Gist

SMS stands for Short Message Service. It is a text messaging service used to send short text-based messages between mobile devices. SMS is a standard component of most phone and internet systems. It allows users to exchange text messages, typically over cellular networks, with a maximum length of 160 characters.

Summary

Short Message Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile phones exchange short text messages, typically transmitted over cellular networks.

Developed as part of the GSM standards, and based on the SS7 signalling protocol, SMS rolled out on digital cellular networks starting in 1993 and was originally intended for customers to receive alerts from their carrier/operator. The service allows users to send and receive text messages of up to 160 characters, originally to and from GSM phones and later also CDMA and Digital AMPS; it has since been defined and supported on newer networks, including present-day 5G ones. Using SMS gateways, messages can be transmitted over the Internet through an SMSC, allowing communication to computers, fixed landlines, and satellite. MMS was later introduced as an upgrade to SMS with "picture messaging" capabilities.

In addition to recreational texting between people, SMS is also used for mobile marketing (a type of direct marketing), two-factor authentication logging-in, televoting, mobile banking, and for other commercial content. The SMS standard has been hugely popular worldwide as a method of text communication: by the end of 2010, it was the most widely used data application with an estimated 3.5 billion active users, or about 80% of all mobile phone subscribers. More recently, SMS has become increasingly challenged by newer proprietary instant messaging services; RCS has been designated as the potential open standard successor to SMS.

GSM : Global System for Mobile Communications.
SMSC : Short Message Service Center.
MMS : Multimedia Messaging Service.
CDMA : Code-division multiple access.

Details

SMS (Short Message Service), commonly referred to as "text messaging," is a service for sending short messages of up to 160 characters (224 character limit if using a 5-bit mode) to mobile devices, including cellular phones and smartphones.

How does SMS work?

SMS is similar to paging. However, SMS messages do not require the mobile phone to be active and within range and will be held for several days until the phone is active and within range.

SMS messages are transmitted via mobile data over cellular networks -- starting with 2G -- to anyone with roaming service capability.

They can also be sent digitally in many other ways, including the following:

* from one Wi-Fi-enabled device to another;
* from web-based applications within a web browser;
* from instant messaging clients;
* from VoIP applications like Skype; and
* from some unified communications applications.

What are the use cases for SMS?

Typical use cases of SMS include the following:

* sending notifications from service centers to a customer;
* sending a notification of delivery by e-commerce platforms;
* sending a notification to a mobile phone owner of a voicemail message;
* sending promotional messages to cell phones as part of SMS marketing;
* sending a notification to subscribers about their plans; and
* sending codes as part of a multifactor authentication platform.

The growth of SMS text messages also led to the development of an Enhanced Messaging Service (EMS) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS).

EMS is an adaptation of SMS that allows users to send and receive ringtones and operator logos, as well as combinations of simple media to and from EMS-compliant handsets.

Further, MMS allows multimedia files to be shared over a cellular network, including pictures and videos.

short messaging service (SMS) vs. multimedia messaging service (MMS) : SMS vs. MMS

Many of these depend upon short phone numbers called common short codes (CSCs), usually consisting of five digits, used to address SMS and MMS messages from cellular telephones.

Further, users can send messages from a computer via an SMS gateway. SMS gateways allow users to send messages to people within the cell served by that gateway. They also serve as international gateways for users with roaming capability.

Challenges with SMS

In recent years, SMS spam has become an issue, as has SMiShing, a security attack in which the user is tricked into downloading a Trojan horse, virus or other malware onto a cellular phone or another mobile device.

Additionally, the growth of social media platforms used as communication channels has outpaced the use of telecommunication-based SMS services.

This has changed the nature of text messaging services. Instead of relying on SMS technology, users commonly text each other using social media apps such as WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger.

Additional Information

Texting is act of sending short messages with cell phones, usually using the Short Messaging Service (SMS).

SMS was developed in the United Kingdom in the late 1980s, and the first text message was sent on December 3, 1992. An SMS commercial service was launched in the United Kingdom in 1995. Text messaging did not take off, however, until it became possible to send messages between the four main British cell phone networks in 1998.

Because typing text into a telephone keypad was cumbersome and the number of characters in a text message was limited, a form of shorthand evolved, especially among young people. This included such shortcuts as UR for “your” or “you’re” and BRB for “be right back.”

In addition to basic communication and entertainment, other uses for text messaging were developed, including the announcement by activists of demonstrations on the streets of China, Ukraine, and Kuwait and clandestine flirting in societies in which informal contact with the opposite gender was frowned upon. In South Africa counselors were sending information on patients’ use of antiretroviral drugs to combat HIV/AIDS through text messages to researchers at Cape Town University. Through text messages Indian politicians were being summoned by staff members to vote on new laws or make up a quorum in parliament. A new computer system was being rolled out in the United Kingdom that would enable text reminders of criminal court sessions to be sent to witnesses. In May 2005 America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response (AMBER) Alert warnings of child abductions in the United States began to be sent by text to those who chose to receive them, and, as of 2018, 924 children had been recovered.

The number of messages sent in the United Kingdom grew from 1 billion in 1999 to some 30 billion in 2005. In the United States text messaging emerged later but expanded rapidly. From 30 million messages sent in the United States in June 2001, the monthly traffic grew to about 7.3 billion in 2005 and 14 billion in 2008. SMS messaging reached its peak in the United States with 2.3 trillion messages in 2011 and in the United Kingdom the next year with 162 billion messages. In 2012 the number of SMS messages sent worldwide peaked at just under 7.8 trillion and has declined since then because of the rise of texting apps like Facebook Messenger, WeChat, and WhatsApp. The major wireless companies report that users now do more texting than talking on their cell phones.

More Information:

What is an SMS?

SMS stands for Short Message Service and is another name for a text message. An SMS is generally sent from one mobile device to another over the cellular network. SMS is a text-only standard first formalized in 1985 in the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) standards.

Character Limits and Images in Text Messages

A single SMS is limited to 160 GSM-7 characters, however most modern mobile phones are capable of segmenting and re-assembling messages up to 1,600 characters. To fit emojis and other characters outside the GSM-7 alphabet in text messages, UCS-2 character encoding is used. A single unicode character causes the whole text message to be encoded using UCS-2, which limits messages to 70 characters.

The limit was originally set because SMS was designed to fit in between existing phone protocols. After it took off, the limit was then enshrined in the SMPP Protocol. SMPP is how text messages are transmitted between carriers.

SMS Differences from MMS

Natively, SMS can't handle pictures, videos, or multimedia attachments. To serve those purposes, in 1999 the MMS standard was ratified. MMS stands for Multimedia Messaging Service which enables people to send pictures, videos, and attachments over text messaging channels.

Once the multimedia is received by the destination carrier the carrier sends an SMS asking the phone to download the content.

The Universality of the Short Message Service

The standard for SMS was agreed upon in 1984 but the very first text message ever sent was from Neil Papworth on the Vodafone network in 1992.
You'll be happy to know it was a happy one; "MERRY CHRISTMAS" was the body of Neil's original text.

From the very humble beginnings of SMS, text messages have exploded onto the scene. Every year, trillions of text messages are sent between SMS-capable devices. An entire ecosystem has grown up around text messaging; SMS Marketing  is now a huge industry, while other applications have built safety and support services onto the SMS platform. All the while, it's also remained a tremendous way to keep in touch with friends and loved ones.

SMS for Business

With the popularity of SMS, it was inevitable that business use cases would grow up around texting. SMS remains one of the best ways to communicate with customers and boasts a 5x open rate when compared to email.

SMS Notifications and SMS Marketing have both proven to be great applications of text messaging in business. Combining the extremely high open rates, universal receiving capability, and always-present nature of mobile devices, they're an excellent way to communicate with customers. For service, too, the informal nature of an SMS is sometimes the perfect touch for business applications.

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