Google Messages (formerly known as Messenger , Android Messages , and Messages by Google ) is a text messaging software application developed by Google for its Android and Wear OS mobile operating systems. It is also available as a web app .
105-520: Google's official universal messaging platform for the Android ecosystem, Messages employs SMS and Rich Communication Services (RCS) . Starting in 2023, Google has RCS activated by default on participating Android devices, similar to the implementation of iMessage on Apple devices. The original code for Android SMS messaging was released in 2009 integrated into the Operating System. It was released as
210-452: A vanity number . These numbers spell out a word or phrase using the keypad, like +1-(123)-ANUMBER. Shortcodes offer very similar features to a dedicated virtual number but are short mobile numbers that are usually 5-6 digits. Their length and availability are different in each and every country. These are usually more expensive and are commonly used by enterprises and governmental organizations. For mass messaging, shortcodes are preferred over
315-472: A 100% delivery guarantee. Most providers can provide link shorteners and built-in analytics to help track the return on investment of each campaign. Depending on the service provider and country, each text message can cost up to a few cents each. Senders intending to send a lot of text messages per month or per year may get discounts from service providers. Since spam laws differ from country to country, SMS service providers are usually location-specific. This
420-494: A 98% open rate and are read within 3 minutes, making them highly effective at reaching recipients quickly. Over the past few years, SMS marketing has become a legitimate advertising channel in some parts of the world. This is because, unlike email over the public internet, the carriers who police their own networks have set guidelines and best practices for the mobile media industry (including mobile advertising). The IAB ( Interactive Advertising Bureau )has established guidelines and
525-414: A business phone number (traditional landline) and receive a SMS in return. Providing customers with the ability to text to a phone number allows organizations to offer new services that deliver value. Examples include chat bots, and text enabled customer service and call centers. A Flash SMS is a type of SMS that appears directly on the main screen without user interaction and is not automatically stored in
630-562: A color screen are capable of sending and receiving standard MMS message. Brands are able to both send (mobile terminated) and receive (mobile originated) rich content through MMS A2P (application-to-person) mobile networks to mobile subscribers. In some networks, brands are also able to sponsor messages that are sent P2P (person-to-person). A typical MMS message based on the GSM encoding can have up to 1500 characters, whereas one based on Unicode can have up to 500 characters. Messages that are longer than
735-444: A company can create a bridge between themselves and the user. Carriers will recognize users responding to an SMS with a keyword as a conversation and will allow links to be delivered. Similar to email, SMS has anti-spam laws which differ from country to country. As a general rule, it's important to obtain the recipient's permission before sending any text message, especially an SMS marketing type of message. Permission can be obtained in
840-466: A confirmation of receipt from the target device, and users are often not informed of the specific type of success being reported. SMS is a stateless communication protocol in which every SMS message is considered entirely independent of other messages. Enterprise applications using SMS as a communication channel for stateful dialogue (where an MO reply message is paired to a specific MT message) requires that session management be maintained external to
945-460: A contest, forwarding to an email or mobile number, group chat, and sending an auto-response. Keywords also allow users to opt-in to receive further marketing correspondence. When using a long code number you face higher levels of scrutiny from Telecom Companies. When sending SMS messages through long code you are unable to send messages with a link in the first message. This is done at the carrier level to help cut down on spam. Using keyword responses,
1050-480: A dedicated virtual number because of their higher throughput and are great for time-sensitive campaigns and emergencies. In Europe the first cross-carrier SMS shortcode campaign was run by Txtbomb in 2001 for an Island Records release, In North America, it was the Labatt Brewing Company in 2002. Over the past few years, mobile short codes have been increasingly popular as a new channel to communicate to
1155-534: A dedicated virtual number, which are also known as a long code or long number (international number format, e.g. +44 7624 805000 or US number format, e.g. 757 772 8555), is a viable option. Unlike a shared number, it can receive SMS replies. Senders can choose from a list of available dedicated virtual numbers from a bulk SMS provider. Prices for dedicated virtual numbers can vary. Some numbers, often called Gold numbers, are easier to recognize, and therefore more expensive to lease. Senders may also get creative and choose
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#17330925773081260-437: A different encoding process called Unicode or Unicode Transformation Format ( UTF-8 ). It is meant to encompass all characters for efficiency but has a caveat. Each Unicode character is 16 bits in size, which takes more information to send, therefore limiting SMS messages to 70 characters. Messages that are larger than 70 characters are also concatenated. These messages can fit 67 characters and can be concatenated up to 4 times for
1365-523: A donation to charity, and much more. Additionally, an intermediary service can facilitate a text-to-voice conversion to be sent to landlines . In 2014, Caktus Group developed the world's first SMS-based voter registration system in Libya. As of February 2015 more than 1.5 million people have registered using that system, providing Libyan voters with unprecedented access to the democratic process. SMS enablement allows individuals to send an SMS message to
1470-401: A financial transaction done from their account. Some SMS only highlights the amount transacted while some also include the balance amount left in the account. Reminders are commonly used in appointment-based industries or for recurring events. Some senders choose to ask their recipients to respond to the reminder text with an SMS keyword to confirm their appointment. This can really help improve
1575-419: A higher level of scrutiny, short codes give you unrivalled throughput without triggering red flags from the carriers. Physical and virtual SIM hosting allows a mobile number sourced from a carrier to be used for receiving SMS as part of a marketing campaign. The SIM associated with the number is hosted by a bulk SMS provider. With physical SIM hosting, a SIM is physically hosted in a GSM modem and SMS received by
1680-439: A large base of SMS-capable terminals and networks existed when people began to use SMS. A new network element required was a specialized short message service centre, and enhancements were required to the radio capacity and network transport infrastructure to accommodate growing SMS traffic. The technical development of SMS was a multinational collaboration supporting the framework of standards bodies. Through these organizations
1785-547: A leading role. Besides the completion of the main specification GSM 03.40 , the detailed protocol specifications on the system interfaces also needed to be completed. The first SMS message was sent over the Vodafone GSM network in the United Kingdom on 3 December 1992, from Neil Papworth of Sema Group (now Mavenir Systems ) using a personal computer to Richard Jarvis of Vodafone using an Orbitel 901 handset. The text of
1890-687: A maximum of 268 characters. Special elements that can be placed inside a text message include: Texting is simple, however, when it comes to SMS marketing - there are many different content structures that can be implemented. Popular message types include sale alerts, reminders, keywords, and multimedia messaging services (MMS). Sale alerts are the most basic form of SMS marketing. They are generally used for clearance, flash sales, and special promotions. Typical messages include coupon codes, and information like expiration dates, products, and website links for additional information. Transaction Alerts are used by financial institutions to notify their customer about
1995-404: A maximum size of 1120 bits. This is important because there are two types of character encodings, GSM and Unicode. Latin-based languages like English are GSM based encoding, which are 7 bits per character. This is where text messages typically get their 160 characters per SMS limit. Long messages that exceed this limit are concatenated . They are split into smaller messages, which are recombined by
2100-496: A message will actually be delivered to its recipient, but delay or complete loss of a message is uncommon, typically affecting less than 5 percent of messages. Some providers allow users to request delivery reports, either via the SMS settings of most modern phones, or by prefixing each message with *0# or *N#. However, the exact meaning of confirmations varies from reaching the network, to being queued for sending, to being sent, to receiving
2205-522: 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. SMS technology originated from radio telegraphy in radio memo pagers that used standardized phone protocols. These were defined in 1986 as part of
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#17330925773082310-567: A method to opt out of messages. One key criterion for provisioning is that the consumer opts in to the service. The mobile operators demand a double opt-in from the consumer and the ability for the consumer to opt-out of the service at any time by sending the word STOP via SMS. These guidelines are established in the CTIA Playbook and the MMA Consumer Best Practices Guidelines which are followed by all mobile marketers in
2415-540: A more theoretical manner, academic Andreas Kaplan defines mobile marketing as "any marketing activity conducted through a ubiquitous network to which consumers are constantly connected using a personal mobile device". Marketing through cellphones SMS (Short Message Service) became increasingly popular in the early 2000s in Europe and some parts of Asia when businesses started to collect mobile phone numbers and send off wanted (or unwanted) content. On average, SMS messages have
2520-441: A myriad of ways, including allowing prospects or customers to tick a permission checkbox on a website, filling in a form, or getting a verbal agreement. In most countries, SMS senders need to identify themselves as their business name inside their initial text message. Identification can be placed in either the sender ID or within the message body copy. Spam prevention laws may also apply to SMS marketing messages, which must include
2625-545: A new GSM body called IDEG (the Implementation of Data and Telematic Services Experts Group), which had its kickoff in May 1987 under the chairmanship of Friedhelm Hillebrand (German Telecom). The technical standard known today was largely created by IDEG (later WP4) as the two recommendations GSM 03.40 (the two point-to-point services merged) and GSM 03.41 (cell broadcast). WP4 created a Drafting Group Message Handling (DGMH), which
2730-465: A person and thus to create a complete movement profile. They do not show up on a display, nor trigger any acoustical signal when received. Their primary purpose was to deliver special services of the network operator to any cell phone. In March 2001, Dutch police in Amsterdam attempted to fight increasing cell phone theft by sending an SMS every three minutes to a phone that has been reported stolen, with
2835-450: A phone. However, longer messages may be broken up into multiple texts, depending upon the telephone service provider. Text-enabled fixed-line handsets are required to receive messages in text format. However, messages can be delivered to non enabled phones using text-to-speech conversion . Short messages can send binary content such as ringtones or logos, as well as Over-the-air programming (OTA) or configuration data. Such uses are
2940-430: A shortcode or virtual number that they do not have access to. Reputable bulk SMS providers will check customer sender IDs beforehand to make sure senders are not misusing or abusing them. The message size will then determine the number of SMS messages that are sent, which then determines the amount of money spent on marketing a product or service. Not all characters in a message are the same size. A single SMS message has
3045-463: A specified geographical area. Cell broadcast is the technology behind Wireless Emergency Alerts in the US which is used for public safety messages and AMBER alerts, and similar public safety messages in other countries . These messages are similar to SMS messages. Messages are sent to a short message service center (SMSC), which provides a " store and forward " mechanism. It attempts to send messages to
3150-546: A standalone application independent of Android with the release of Android 5.0 Lollipop in 2014, replacing Google Hangouts as the default SMS app on Google's Nexus line of phones. In 2018, Messages adopted RCS messages and evolved to send larger data files, sync with other apps, and even create mass messages. This was in preparation for when Google launched messages for web. In December 2019, Google began to introduce support for Rich Communication Services (RCS) messaging via an RCS service hosted by Google, referred to in
3255-502: A strong position in a mobile app store. The term app marketing has not yet been defined in a unified scientific definition and is also used in various ways in practice. The term refers on the one hand to those activities that serve to generate app downloads and thus attract new users for a mobile app. In some cases, the term is also used to describe the promotional sending of push notifications and in-app messages. Here are several models for App marketing. 1. Content embedded mode For
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3360-601: A variety of alphabets: the default GSM 7-bit alphabet , the 8-bit data alphabet , and the 16-bit UCS-2 or UTF-16 alphabets. Depending on which alphabet the subscriber has configured in the handset, this leads to the maximum individual short message sizes of 160 7- bit characters, 140 8-bit characters, or 70 16-bit characters. GSM 7-bit alphabet support is mandatory for GSM handsets and network elements, but characters in languages such as Hindi, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, or Cyrillic alphabet languages (e.g., Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Bulgarian, etc.) must be encoded using
3465-478: A vendor-specific extension of the GSM specification and there are multiple competing standards, although Nokia 's Smart Messaging is common. SMS is used for M2M ( Machine to Machine ) communication. For instance, there is an LED display machine controlled by SMS, and some vehicle tracking companies use SMS for their data transport or telemetry needs. SMS usage for these purposes is slowly being superseded by GPRS services owing to their lower overall cost. GPRS
3570-415: A well-developed inbound mobile marketing strategy. According to mobile marketing company Leanplum, Android sees open rates nearly twice as high as those on iOS. Android sees open rates of 3.48 percent for push notification, versus iOS which has open rates of 1.77 percent. With the strong growth in the use of smartphones, app usage has also greatly increased. The annual number of mobile app downloads over
3675-484: Is US$ 0.11, while mobile networks charge each other interconnect fees of at least US$ 0.04 when connecting between different phone networks. In 2015, the actual cost of sending an SMS in Australia was found to be $ 0.00016 per SMS. The global SMS messaging business was estimated to be worth over US$ 240 billion in 2013, accounting for almost half of all revenue generated by mobile messaging. The popularity of SMS also led to
3780-473: Is a list of the most popular and reputable SMS companies in each continent, with some information about the number of phones in use . It is important to note that message pricing, message delivery, and service offerings will also differ substantially from country to country. MMS mobile marketing can contain a timed slideshow of images, text, audio and video. This mobile content is delivered via MMS (Multimedia Message Service). Nearly all new phones produced with
3885-400: Is a lot of competition in this field as well. However, just like other services, it is not easy anymore to rule the mobile application market. Most companies have acknowledged the potential of Mobile Apps to increase the interaction between a company and its target customers. With the fast progress and growth of the smartphone market, high-quality Mobile app development is essential to obtain
3990-416: Is a multi-channel online marketing technique focused at reaching a specific audience on their smartphones , feature phones , tablets , or any other related devices through websites, e-mail, SMS and MMS, social media, or mobile applications . Mobile marketing can provide customers with time and location sensitive, personalized information that promotes goods, services, appointment reminders and ideas. In
4095-564: Is a name or number that identifies who the sender is. For commercial purposes, virtual numbers , short codes , SIM hosting, and custom names are most commonly used and can be leased through bulk SMS providers. As the name implies, shared virtual numbers are shared by many different senders. They're usually free, but they can't receive SMS replies, and the number changes from time to time without notice or consent. Senders may have different shared virtual numbers on different days, which may make it confusing or untrustworthy for recipients depending on
4200-494: Is about 66% of the world population . However, nowadays, the mobile phone has become a focal device in people’s lives, and many people cannot live without it. These advanced mobile technologies bring people more business opportunities that connect business people and consumers at any time and place. Because of this, digital marketing has become more essential, and mobile marketing is one of the newest digital marketing channels that people are considering; it can get information about
4305-499: Is based on multiple agreements with mobile carriers to exchange two-way SMS traffic into and out of the operator's SMSC , also known as "local termination model". Aggregators lack direct access into the SS7 protocol, which is the protocol where the SMS messages are exchanged. SMS messages are delivered to the operator's SMSC, but not the subscriber's handset; the SMSC takes care of further handling of
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4410-403: Is cheaper, and these routes can disappear without notice and are slower. Many carriers don't like this type of routing, and will often block them with filters set up in their SMSCs. Some bulk SMS providers have the option to combine more reliable grey routing on lower value carriers with their ON-NET offerings. If the routes are managed well, then messages can be delivered reliably. Hybrid routing
4515-432: Is evangelizing the use of the mobile channel for marketers. While this has been fruitful in developed regions such as North America, Western Europe and some other countries, mobile SPAM messages (SMS sent to mobile subscribers without a legitimate and explicit opt-in by the subscriber) remain an issue in many other parts of the world, partly due to the carriers selling their member databases to third parties. In India, however,
4620-628: Is lower: 153 for 7-bit encoding, 134 for 8-bit encoding and 67 for 16-bit encoding. The receiving handset is then responsible for reassembling the message and presenting it to the user as one long message. While the standard theoretically permits up to 255 segments, 10 segments is the practical maximum with some carriers, and long messages are often billed as equivalent to multiple SMS messages. In some cases 127 segments are supported, but software limitations in some SMS applications do not permit this. Some providers have offered length-oriented pricing schemes for messages, although that type of pricing structure
4725-501: Is more common for SMS marketing messages, where timeliness and reliable delivery is less of an issue. The easiest and most efficient way of sending an SMS marketing campaign is through a bulk SMS service provider. Enterprise-grade SMS providers will usually allow new customers the option to sign-up for a free trial account before committing to their platform. Reputable companies also offer free spam compliance, real-time reporting, link tracking, SMS API, multiple integration options, and
4830-548: Is offered by smaller telco players as a route of sending SMS text to reduce the cost of SMS texting internationally. The Mobile Application Part (MAP) of the SS7 protocol included support for the transport of Short Messages through the Core Network from its inception. MAP Phase 2 expanded support for SMS by introducing a separate operation code for Mobile Terminated Short Message transport. Since Phase 2, there have been no changes to
4935-418: Is optimized for telephony, since this was identified as its main application. The key idea for SMS was to use this telephone-optimized system, and to transport messages on the signalling paths needed to control the telephone traffic during periods when no signalling traffic existed. In this way, unused resources in the system could be used to transport messages at minimal cost. However, it was necessary to limit
5040-415: Is rapidly disappearing. SMS gateway providers facilitate SMS traffic between businesses and mobile subscribers, including SMS for enterprises, content delivery, and entertainment services involving SMS, e.g. TV voting. Considering SMS messaging performance and cost, as well as the level of messaging services, SMS gateway providers can be classified as aggregators or SS7 providers. The aggregator model
5145-506: Is that, in America, talk is cheap. Because local calls on land lines are usually free, wireless operators have to offer big “bundles” of minutes—up to 5,000 minutes per month—as part of their monthly pricing plans to persuade subscribers to use mobile phones instead. Texting first took off in other parts of the world among cost-conscious teenagers who found that it was cheaper to text than to call [..] Free local calls also make logging on to
5250-422: Is the backbone of SMS. SS7 is what carriers around the world use to talk to each other. ON-NET routing is the most popular form of messaging globally. It's the most reliable and preferable way for telecommunications/carriers to receive messages, as the messages from the bulk SMS provider is sent to them directly. For senders that need consistency and reliability, seeking a provider that uses ON-NET routing should be
5355-573: 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
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#17330925773085460-579: The Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Flip, favoring Google Messages instead. Some of the most important features in Google Messages are: SMS 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
5565-582: The Nokia 2010 , which was released in January 1994, was the first mobile phone to support composing SMSes easily. Initial growth was slow, with customers in 1995 sending on average only 0.4 messages per GSM customer per month. Initially, networks in the UK only allowed customers to send messages to other users on the same network , limiting the usefulness of the service. This restriction was lifted in 1999. Over time, this issue
5670-531: The Philippines by 2001 and the country was dubbed the "texting capital of the world", partly helped by large numbers of free text messages offered by the mobile operators in monthly subscriptions. SMS adoption was limited to parts of Europe and Asia during these earlier years, with U.S. adoption being low partly due to incompatible networks and cheap voice calls relative to other countries. The Economist wrote in 2003, as noted by an analyst: The short answer
5775-467: The Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) or PSTN via Interworking and Gateway MSCs . Subscriber-originated messages are transported from a handset to a service center, and may be destined for mobile users, subscribers on a fixed network, or Value-Added Service Providers (VASPs) , also known as application-terminated. Subscriber-terminated messages are transported from the service center to
5880-581: The RIM BlackBerry , also typically uses standard mail protocols such as SMTP over TCP/IP . The Short Message Service—Point to Point (SMS-PP) —was originally defined in GSM recommendation 03.40, which is now maintained in 3GPP as TS 23.040. GSM 03.41 (now 3GPP TS 23.041) defines the Short Message Service—Cell Broadcast (SMS-CB) , which allows messages (advertising, public information, etc.) to be broadcast to all mobile users in
5985-499: The Samsung Galaxy S21 , Messages replaces Samsung's in-house Messages app as the default text messaging app for One UI for some regions and carriers. In April 2021, the app began to receive UI modifications on Samsung devices to follow aspects of One UI, including pushing the top of the message list towards the middle of the screen to improve ergonomics. In February 2023, Google began to replace references to "chat features" in
6090-434: The 16-bit UCS-2 character encoding (see Unicode ). Routing data and other metadata is additional to the payload size. Larger content ( concatenated SMS , multipart or segmented SMS, or "long SMS") can be sent using multiple messages, in which case each message will start with a User Data Header (UDH) containing segmentation information. Since UDH is part of the payload, the number of available characters per segment
6195-505: The GSM System, " both mobile-originated and mobile-terminated short messages appear on the table of GSM teleservices. The discussions on the GSM services were concluded in the recommendation GSM 02.03 " TeleServices supported by a GSM PLMN . " Here a rudimentary description of the three services was given: The material elaborated in GSM and its WP1 subgroup was handed over in Spring 1987 to
6300-689: The Global System for Mobile Communications ( GSM ) series of standards. The first SMS message was sent on 3 December 1992, when Neil Papworth , a test engineer for Sema Group , sent "Merry Christmas" to the Orbitel 901 phone of colleague Richard Jarvis. Adding text messaging functionality to mobile devices began in the early 1980s. The first action plan of the CEPT Group GSM was approved in December 1982, requesting that "The services and facilities offered in
6405-551: 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 (see SMS banking ), and for other commercial content. The SMS standard has been hugely popular worldwide as
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#17330925773086510-481: The Messages user interface with "RCS". In August 2023, Google announced that Messages will use RCS by default for all users unless they opt out, to allow them to benefit from secure messaging. In December 2023, with the arrival of a slew of new features, the app was renamed "Google Messages". In July 2024, Samsung announced it would no longer pre-install Samsung Messages on its Galaxy devices in some regions, starting with
6615-683: The Mobile Terminated service. CAMEL allows the gsmSCP to block the submission (MO) or delivery (MT) of Short Messages, route messages to destinations other than that specified by the user, and perform real-time billing for the use of the service. Prior to standardized CAMEL control of the Short Message Service, IN control relied on switch vendor specific extensions to the Intelligent Network Application Part (INAP) of SS7. Mobile marketing Mobile marketing
6720-768: The SIM are relayed to the customer. With virtual SIM hosting, the SIM is roamed onto the Bulk SMS provider's partner mobile network and SMS sent to the mobile number are routed from the mobile network's SS7 network to an SMSC or virtual mobile gateway, and then onto the customer. A custom sender ID, also known as an alphanumeric sender ID, enables users to set a business name as the sender ID for one-way organization-to-consumer messages. Custom sender IDs are only supported in certain countries and are up to 11 characters long, and support uppercase and lowercase ASCII letters and digits 0-9. Senders are not allowed to use digits only as this would mimic
6825-428: The SMSC's recipients. If a recipient is not reachable, the SMSC queues the message for later retry. Some SMSCs also provide a "forward and forget" option where transmission is tried only once. Both mobile terminated (MT, for messages sent to a mobile handset) and mobile originating (MO, for those sent from the mobile handset) operations are supported. Message delivery is " best effort ", so there are no guarantees that
6930-579: The SMSCs of other mobile operators. Therefore, it is possible to avoid delays and message losses, offering full delivery guarantees of messages and optimized routing. This model is particularly efficient when used in mission-critical messaging and SMS used in corporate communications. Moreover, these SMS gateway providers are providing branded SMS services with masking but after misuse of these gateways most countries' governments have taken serious steps to block these gateways. Message Service Centers communicate with
7035-555: The Short Message Service". Responsible editor was Finn Trosby. The first and very rudimentary draft of the technical specification was completed in November 1987. However, drafts useful for the manufacturers followed at a later stage in the period. A comprehensive description of the work in this period is given in. The work on the draft specification continued in the following few years, where Kevin Holley of Cellnet (now Telefónica O2 UK) played
7140-705: The Short Message operation packages in MAP, although other operation packages have been enhanced to support CAMEL SMS control. From 3GPP Releases 99 and 4 onwards, CAMEL Phase 3 introduced the ability for the Intelligent Network (IN) to control aspects of the Mobile Originated Short Message Service, while CAMEL Phase 4, as part of 3GPP Release 5 and onwards, provides the IN with the ability to control
7245-459: The United States at the time (see digital divide ), hence making SMS more accessible. SMS has become a large commercial industry, earning $ 114.6 billion globally in 2010. In the year 2002, 366 billion SMS text messages were sent globally, a number that rose to 6.1 trillion (6.1 × 10 ) in 2010, which is an average of 193,000 messages per second. The global average price for an SMS message
7350-544: The United States. In Canada , opt-in became mandatory once the Fighting Internet and Wireless Spam Act came into force in 2014. Simply put, SMS infrastructure is made up of special servers that talk to each other, using software called Short Message Service Centre (SMSC) that use a special protocol called Short Message Peer to Peer (SMPP). Through the SMPP connections, bulk SMS providers (also known as SMS Gateways ) like
7455-457: The context. For example, shared virtual numbers may be suitable for 2-factor authentication text messages, as recipients are often expecting these text messages, which are often triggered by actions that the recipients make. But for text messages that the recipient isn't expecting, like a sales promotion, a dedicated virtual number may be preferred. To avoid sharing numbers with other senders, and for brand recognition and number consistency, leasing
7560-476: The destination handset, and may originate from mobile users, from fixed network subscribers, or from other sources such as VASPs. On some carriers non-subscribers can send messages to a subscriber's phone using an Email-to-SMS gateway . Additionally, many carriers, including AT&T Mobility , T-Mobile USA , Sprint , and Verizon Wireless , offer the ability to do this through their respective websites. For example, an AT&T subscriber whose phone number
7665-520: The features of goods that people like without the need for buyers to go to the actual store. SMS marketing has both inbound and outbound marketing strategies. Inbound marketing focuses on lead generation, and outbound marketing focuses on sending messages for sales, promotions, contests, donations, television program voting, appointments and event reminders. There are 5 key components to SMS marketing: sender ID , message size , content structure , spam compliance , and message delivery . A sender ID
7770-587: The government's efforts to create the National Do Not Call Registry have helped cellphone users stop SMS advertisements by sending a simple SMS or calling 1909. Mobile marketing approaches through SMS have expanded rapidly in Europe and Asia as a new channel to reach the consumer. SMS initially received negative media coverage in many parts of Europe for being a new form of spam as some advertisers purchased lists and sent unsolicited content to consumer's phones; however, as guidelines are put in place by
7875-479: The inbox. It can be useful in emergencies , such as a fire alarm or cases of confidentiality , as in delivering one-time passwords . In 2010, almost half a million silent SMS messages were sent by the German federal police, customs and the federal domestic intelligence service Verfassungsschutz . These silent messages, also known as silent TMS, stealth SMS, stealth ping or Short Message Type 0, are used to locate
7980-421: The internet, for hours at a time, and using PC-to-PC “ instant messaging ” (IM) the preferred mode of electronic chat among American teenagers. This is also backed by the fact that as of 2003, American internet users were spending on average five times more time online than Europeans, and many poorer countries in Europe and other regions around the world had significantly lower rates of internet access compared to
8085-426: The last few years has exponentially grown, with hundreds of billions of downloads in 2018, and the number of downloads expecting to climb by 2022. Therefore, mobile marketers have increasingly taken advantage of smartphone apps as a marketing resource. Marketers aim to optimize the visibility of an app in a store, which will maximize the number of downloads. This practice is called App Store Optimization (ASO). There
8190-432: The length of the messages to 128 bytes (later improved to 160 seven-bit characters) so that the messages could fit into the existing signalling formats. Based on his personal observations and on analysis of the typical lengths of postcard and Telex messages, Hillebrand argued that 160 characters was sufficient for most brief communications. SMS could be implemented in every mobile station by updating its software. Hence,
8295-874: The limit are truncated and not concatenated like an SMS. Good examples of mobile-originated MMS marketing campaigns are Motorola 's ongoing campaigns at House of Blues venues, where the brand allows the consumer to send their mobile photos to the LED board in real-time as well as blog their images online. Push notifications were first introduced to smartphones by Apple with the Push Notification Service in 2009. For Android devices, Google developed Android Cloud to Messaging or C2DM in 2010. Google replaced this service with Google Cloud Messaging in 2013. Commonly referred to as GCM, Google Cloud Messaging served as C2DM's successor, making improvements to authentication and delivery, new API endpoints and messaging parameters, and
8400-529: The message "This handset was nicked, buying or selling is a crime. The police." SMS was originally designed as part of GSM, but is now available on a wide range of networks globally, including 3G, 4G and 5G networks. However, not all text messaging systems use SMS, and some notable alternative implementations of the concept include J-Phone 's SkyMail and NTT Docomo 's Short Mail , both in Japan. Email messaging from phones, as popularized by NTT Docomo's i-mode and
8505-450: The message through the SS7 network. Another type of SMS gateway provider is based on SS7 connectivity to route SMS messages, also known as "international termination model". The advantage of this model is the ability to route data directly through SS7, which gives the provider total control and visibility of the complete path during SMS routing. This means SMS messages can be sent directly to and from recipients without having to go through
8610-609: The message was "Merry Christmas." The first commercial deployment of a short message service center (SMSC) was by Aldiscon part of Logica (now part of CGI ) with Telia (now TeliaSonera ) in Sweden in 1993, followed by Fleet Call (now Nextel ) in the US, Telenor in Norway and BT Cellnet (now O2 UK) later in 1993. All first installations of SMS gateways were for network notifications sent to mobile phones, usually to inform of voice mail messages. The first commercially sold SMS service
8715-526: The mobile consumer. Brands have begun to treat the mobile shortcode as a mobile domain name, allowing the consumer to text message the brand at an event, in-store and off any traditional media. Short codes provide a direct line between a brand and their customer base. Once a company has a dedicated short code, they are able to directly message their audience without worrying if the messages are being delivered, unlike long code D.I.D.s ( Direct Inward Dial , another term for phone number). Whereas long code texts face
8820-556: The mobile operators, SMS has become the most popular branch of the Mobile Marketing industry with several 100 million advertising SMS sent out every month in Europe alone. This is thanks in part to SMS messages being hardware agnostic—they can be delivered to practically any mobile phone , smartphone or feature phone and accessed without a Wi-Fi or mobile data connection. This is important to note since there were over 5 billion unique mobile phone subscribers worldwide in 2017, which
8925-441: The most part at present, the downloading APP from APP store is free, for APP development enterprise, need a way to flow to liquidate, implantable advertising and APP combines content marketing and game characters to seamlessly integrating user experience, so as to improve advertising hits. With these free downloading apps, developers use in-app purchases or subscription to profit. 2. Advertising model advertisement implantation mode
9030-541: The network operator supports it. SMS may be used to provide premium rate services to subscribers of a network. Mobile-terminated short messages can be used to deliver digital content such as news alerts, financial information, logos, and ringtones . The first premium-rate media content delivered via the SMS system was the world's first paid downloadable ringing tones, as commercially launched by Saunalahti (later Jippii Group, now part of Elisa Group ), in 1998. Initially, only Nokia branded phones could handle them. By 2002
9135-521: The ones mentioned above can send text messages and process SMS replies and delivery receipts. When a user sends messages through a bulk SMS provider, it gets delivered to the recipient's carrier via an ON-NET connection or the International SS7 Network . Operators around the world are connected by a network known as Signaling System #7. It's used to exchange information related to phone calls, number translations, prepaid billing systems, and
9240-480: The population as of 2023. In order to create a modern successor to SMS that isn't run by a single company and is fully interoperable between devices, industry figures have created the RCS 'Universal Profile' initiative. It was supported by Apple when iOS 18 came out in 2024, which will mean that virtually all new mobile phones (iOS and Android platforms) will have RCS texting capabilities, though this may also depend on if
9345-413: The preferred option. Grey Routing is a term given to messages that are sent to carriers (often offshore) that have low cost interconnect agreements with other carriers. Instead of sending the messages directly to the intended carrier, some bulk SMS providers send it to an offshore carrier, which will relay the message to the intended carrier. At the cost of consistency and reliability, this roundabout way
9450-523: The protocol. Transmission of short messages between the SMSC and the handset is done whenever using the Mobile Application Part (MAP) of the SS7 protocol. Messages are sent with the MAP MO- and MT-ForwardSM operations, whose payload length is limited by the constraints of the signaling protocol to precisely 140 bytes (140 bytes × 8 bits / byte = 1120 bits). Short messages can be encoded using
9555-451: The provision of a message transmission service of alphanumeric messages to mobile users "with acknowledgement capabilities". The last three words transformed SMS into something much more useful than the electronic paging services used at the time that some in GSM might have had in mind. SMS was considered in the main GSM group as a possible service for the new digital cellular system. In GSM document " Services and Facilities to be provided in
9660-471: The public switched telephone networks and public data networks ... should be available in the mobile system." This plan included the exchange of text messages either directly between mobile stations, or transmitted via message handling systems in use at that time. The SMS concept was developed in the Franco-German GSM cooperation in 1984 by Friedhelm Hillebrand and Bernard Ghillebaert . The GSM
9765-443: The receiving phone. Concatenated messages can only fit 153 characters instead of 160. For example, a 177 character message is sent as 2 messages. The first is sent with 153 characters and the second with 24 characters. The process of SMS concatenation can happen up to 4 times for most bulk SMS providers, which allows senders a maximum of 612 character messages per campaign. Non-Latin based languages, like Chinese, and also emojis use
9870-424: The removal of limitations on API send-rates and message sizes. It is a message that pops up on a mobile device. It is the delivery of information from a software application to a computing device without any request from the client or the user. They look like SMS notifications but they reach only the users who installed the app. The specifications vary for iOS and Android users. SMS and push notifications can be part of
9975-428: The ringtone business globally had exceeded $ 1 billion of service revenues, and nearly US$ 5 billion by 2008. Today, they are also used to pay smaller payments online—for example, for file-sharing services, in mobile application stores, or VIP section entrance. Outside the online world, one can buy a bus ticket or beverages from ATM, pay a parking ticket, order a store catalog or some goods (e.g., discount movie DVDs), make
10080-424: The sender's workflow and reduce missed appointments, leading to improved productivity and revenue. This allows people to text a custom keyword to a dedicated virtual number or short code. Through custom keywords, users can opt-in to service with minimal effort. Once a keyword is triggered, an autoresponder can be set to guide the user to the next step. They can also activate different functions, which include entering
10185-433: The spontaneous creation of the so-called ' SMS language ' phenomenon, where words are shortened in order to deal with the 160 character limit of SMS messages. Usage of SMS for mobile data services became increasingly prominent in the early 2000s due to its ubiquity, reliability, and cold reception of the newer WAP standard. (see Premium-rated services below). In the early and mid 2000s, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)
10290-423: The subgroup WP3 network aspects chaired by Jan Audestad (Telenor). The result was approved by the main GSM group in a June 1985 document which was distributed to industry. The input documents on SMS had been prepared by Friedhelm Hillebrand of Deutsche Telekom , with contributions from Bernard Ghillebaert of France Télécom . The definition that Friedhelm Hillebrand and Bernard Ghillebaert brought into GSM called for
10395-507: The technology was made freely available to the whole world. The first proposal which initiated the development of SMS was made by a contribution of Germany and France in the GSM group meeting in February 1985 in Oslo. This proposal was further elaborated in GSM subgroup WP1 Services (Chairman Martine Alvernhe, France Telecom) based on a contribution from Germany. There were also initial discussions in
10500-705: The user interface as "chat features". This was followed by a wider global rollout throughout 2020. The app surpassed 1 billion installs in April 2020, doubling its number of installs in less than a year. Initially, RCS did not support end-to-end encryption . In June 2021, Google introduced end-to-end encryption in Messages by default using the Signal Protocol , for all one-to-one RCS-based conversations, for all RCS group chats in December 2022 for beta users, and for all RCS users by August 2023, as well as enabling RCS for all users by default to encourage encryption. Beginning with
10605-433: Was 555-555-5555 would receive emails addressed to 5555555555@txt.att.net as text messages. Subscribers can easily reply to these SMS messages, and the SMS reply is sent back to the original email address. Sending email to SMS is free for the sender, but the recipient is subject to the standard delivery charges. Only the first 160 characters of an email message can be delivered to a phone, and only 160 characters can be sent from
10710-752: Was developed as an improved version of SMS that supports sending of pictures and video. SMS has been increasingly challenged by Internet Protocol -based messaging services with additional features for modern mobile devices, such as Facebook Messenger , WhatsApp , Telegram , or WeChat . These services run independently from mobile network operators and typically don't provide cross-platform messaging capabilities like SMS or email does. For example, between 2010 and 2022, SMS telecom revenue in India dropped 94 percent, while "revenue share per user from data usage...grew over 10 times.", although in some regions such as North America SMS continues to be used by over 80 percent of
10815-575: Was eliminated by switch billing instead of billing at the SMSC and by new features within SMSCs to allow blocking of foreign mobile users sending messages through it. By the end of 2000, the average number of messages reached 35 per user per month, and on Christmas Day 2006, over 205 million messages were sent in the UK alone. SMS had become a social phenomenon in Finland among teens and youngsters by 1999. SMS traffic across Europe reached 4 billion messages as of January 2000. It had become extremely popular in
10920-408: Was offered to consumers, as a person-to-person text messaging service by Radiolinja (now part of Elisa) in Finland in 1993. Most early GSM mobile phone handsets did not support the ability to send SMS text messages, and Nokia was the only handset manufacturer whose total GSM phone line in 1993 supported user-sending of SMS text messages. According to Matti Makkonen , an engineer at Nokia at the time,
11025-485: Was responsible for the specification of SMS. Finn Trosby of Telenor chaired the draft group through its first three years, in which the design of SMS was established. DGMH had five to eight participants, and Finn Trosby mentions as major contributors Kevin Holley, Eija Altonen, Didier Luizard and Alan Cox. The first action plan mentions for the first time the Technical Specification 03.40 "Technical Realisation of
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