What is an SMS?

What is an SMS?

According to the Oxford Dictionary, an SMS message is a short text message (with a character limit) that can be sent between mobile phones.

Actually, SMS is an acronym formed by the English acronym for Short Message Service, which already gives us a very precise idea of what it means and what its characteristics are.

SMS, a bit of history

It is a recent invention, but not as recent as it might seem, since SMS is well over thirty years old. It was invented in 1985 by Matti Makkonen, a Finnish engineer specialized in the field of mobile communications. In fact, Makkonen, who worked for Nokia and other companies, was actively working on the development of GSM technology and created SMS as part of this standard. However, due to its success, it has not been limited to this technology and is now included in a wide variety of networks, including 4G, 5G, etc.

Despite being created in 1985, the first SMS was not sent until a few years later. It was in 1992 when Neil Papworth (a Sema Group engineer) sent the first message from his computer to Richard Jarvis (of Vodafone), who received it on his cell phone. The content of this first SMS could not have been simpler: a Happy Christmas, since it was sent on December 3. Despite their simplicity, these two words made Papworth and Jarvis the first two people in the world to communicate by SMS.

Much has happened since that distant 1992 and communications have evolved at a dizzying pace. However, it has been proven that SMS is here to stay and has stood the test of time to become an essential system in many modern processes and communications.

The great explosion of SMS

Its great explosion came in the mid-90s of the last century and continued during the 2000s, when it became a very common form of communication due to its rapidity, economy, universality and functionality. Young people adopted SMS as their main means of communication, as it was inexpensive and fast, as well as more discreet than using the telephone. Sending an SMS was fast, convenient and cheaper than a call, and messages could be sent, received and answered anytime, anywhere.

Gradually, however, it spread to all sectors of society and soon became a system used for advertising, marketing and all kinds of business communications, thus giving birth to what is known as Bulk SMS.

Bulk SMS: the most effective form of communication

The Bulk SMS are text messages sent simultaneously to multiple recipients. The sender is usually a company or institution that disseminates messages of interest to a group. We can speak mainly of two types of bulk SMS:

- Transactional: as the name suggests, these are those that imply or arise as a result of a transaction or contractual relationship. They are usually sent at key moments of the relationship with the customer and can be, for example, after subscribing to a newsletter, confirmation of a purchase, reminder of an appointment, logistical tracking of parcels and so on.

- Promotional messages: these are commercial, advertising or marketing messages that companies send to their customers announcing promotions, special sales, offers...

Sending SMS from PC

Sending SMS from a PC (be it a desktop/desktop station, laptop, tablet, etc.) is a convenient and fast way to reach consumers when conducting a bulk SMS campaign. LabsMobile, through its WebSMS service offers all the facilities to make sending messages from the computer simple, reliable and fast. Send unique text messages through LabsMobile's WebSMS and your campaigns will be a success.

Buy SMS for your bulk sendings

The purchase of SMS for mass or bulk sendings is a very common practice that usually gives very good results. The figures support this: SMS is one of the communication methods with the highest opening or reading rate (it can reach 98%) and the fastest, since it takes around 2 minutes on average from the moment an SMS is sent until the user opens it on his cell phone.

LabsMobile SMS purchase prices vary according to country and sending volume. Our sales team will assist you at all times in the purchase process.

Web SMS

The Web SMS application allows you to send personalized SMS messages to your customers whenever you want with the particularity that you can do it in a comfortable and practical way from your computer. It is an on-line web application for sending and also managing a LabsMobile account.

Send SMS Marketing campaigns

A SMS marketing campaign is an excellent way to publicize offers and promotions to customers or potential customers of a company. The good statistics and advantages of text messages (speed, high opening rate...) guarantee good results when a good strategy is created using SMS.

SMS Online

Sending SMS Online from a computer has many advantages, since it allows you to create personalized and automated bulk messages. In addition, you can import contact lists from a database to make sending even faster and more convenient.

Other advantages are for example adding a link or url to expand the information, personalizing the sender for free (an option available in many countries) and the possibility of having statistics and metrics to analyze the results of the campaigns.