SMS turns 30 years old. Although WhatsApp and other messaging applications have displaced text messages as the main form of communication using text on phones, SMS still has a lot of life ahead of it.
In fact, it will likely be a long time before cell phones will no longer be able to send and receive these old text messages. In fact, one of Apple's great innovations in the iPhone 14 has been that it allows you to send emergency SMS messages via satellite. And technology already exists for a similar service to reach Android phones.
This is possible among other things because SMS does not work over the Internet. In fact, in areas without coverage to receive data we can send an SMS. It is enough to have coverage on a mobile network, no matter how little it may be.
On the other hand, SMS are still very secure. Well, in order to intercept an SMS message, you would have to hack the mobile network of a telephone operator. Something much more complicated than hacking an Internet connection.
That is why many institutions and companies continue to send an SMS for security reasons to verify data. Even WhatsApp uses sends an SMS to verify the phone number of our account to activate it.
In fact, the use of SMS for notifications or for security largely explains why the sending of these messages has grown by 75% in 2022 on the Infobib platform, one of the main companies in the world in providing information systems for companies.
Although it is true that this report refers to operations that allow communications to be sent from companies to people, the data is quite relevant. Well, it tells us that SMS is still fully valid, among other things because we pay more attention to an SMS than to a WhatsApp. If only because it is not normal to receive them.
This reliability of SMS is its best weapon for those who prefer to use it instead of WhatsApp or other messaging applications. In addition to its universal nature. And this last one is important.
If we send an SMS we know that the person to whom we send it will be able to receive it if their phone is connected to a telephone network. Well, it is still the most universal method of communication that exists. Any phone can receive them. It is not necessary to register for any service.
There are also people who use SMS and the telephone and resist using WhatsApp or any other messaging tool because of the problems they cause: the unwritten need to respond quickly after reading a message, misunderstandings when not using non-verbal communication, disputes in groups, etc.
This is the case of Belén López, at 33 years old, this graduate in Social Work from Albacete has only used WhatsApp for four months. And she did it from a computer. There is no messaging application installed on her phone.
To communicate, use SMS, telephone and email. Although in the telephone conversation we have with her she also explains to us that she has a Facebook account.
When asked about the reasons that have led her to not use messaging applications and prefer to communicate by SMS, she explains that "I feel like the resistance. I don't think it is necessary to use WhatsApp. Furthermore, I would misuse messaging. I have suffered The negative part of not using WhatsApp, it seems that you don't exist for certain people.
He also confesses to us that sometimes there are people who make him suspicious because responding to their SMS costs money. Although many telephone companies no longer charge for sending these types of messages. Although it is true that it is worth checking this. At least if we are going to make frequent use of this type of messages.
It is true that cases like those of Belén López are exceptional. But they are also symptomatic of how messaging applications are perceived as a source of problems, no matter how many practical advantages they have. There are phenomena like ghosting to prove it.
The future of SMS seems to partly depend on the so-called RCS technology, promoted by Google and many teleoperators. This turns messages sent through messaging applications into something very close to WhatsApp.
Although RCS messages, which can already be used on Android phones in much of the world, require an Internet connection, so they cannot replace SMS in emergency cases, and Apple does not incorporate this technology, very similar to that of its iMessage messaging system, on iPhones.
