SMS Celebrates 20th Birthday

It was on December 3, 1992, when the first text message in the world was sent in the UK. Neil Papworth, who is an engineer working in the UK back then, had the honor of sending the first SMS in the world, and instead of something geekier like “Hello, World”, it read a plain and simple “Merry Christmas.” Of course, it must be interesting to note that for humans, most of us would be entering our prime at the age of 20, but for the text message (or SMS, depending on what floats your boat), it could very well be in its twilight years – or at least have gone over the hill.

Papworth mentioned, “It happened that day that Vodafone wanted to try sending a message to Richard Jarvis, one of the directors there, who was at a Christmas party. So we sat at the computer and typed him a message and then sent him the message ‘Merry Christmas. For me it was just another day’s testing, it didn’t seem to be anything big at the time.”

Never despise small beginnings, that is all that I can say. Happy birthday SMS, and hopefully you will be around for the next 20 years.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: sms