Short Message Service

Short Message Service

Jean Nasser, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Definitions and background

Short Message Service (SMS), also called text messaging, refers to a short electronic text message, that is sent or received over a wireless network via any cellular devices such as iPhone or Blackberry and is less than 160 characters (Pakter and Chen, 2013). SMS or text messaging refer to the ability to send and receive short text message between cellular devices (Jones, 2009). Kert (2011) described SMS as an international messaging system that has been used since 1992. SMS was included in the original design stage of the European global system for mobile communication (GSM), as an add-on with low priority to grow the attraction of GSM (Reid, F. J. & Reid, D. J., 2010).

Markett, Sanchez, Weber and Tangney (2006) refer to SMS as an application used among students to quickly send and receive text based messages at any time. Lee, Chung and Kim (2013) describe SMS texting as one of the most known mobile phone application among cell phone users, as 70% of cell phone users use short message service. Lee, Chung and Kim found that many universities and schools across the US started to implement SMS systems to send alerts or messages in the form of text to their students, staff, faculties and parents.