First SMS message was sent in 1992
![Associated Press Mobile messaging has grown greatly since 1992.
(File Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)](https://thumb.spokesman.com/xrFJEKIHYoCmL9zIBiCWNBdaskA=/400x0/media.spokesman.com/photos/2008/02/04/txt4_texting_02-04-2008_K2CK21F.jpg)
SMS, or short message service, came out of a collective effort by the phone companies in the 1980s to find a simple way to send quick messages to mobile devices.
In December 1992, the first commercial SMS message was tapped out in England by Neil Papworth to a friend. The message: “Merry Christmas.”
He used a computer to send the message to a mobile phone.
The first full mobile-to-mobile SMS was sent by Riku Pihkonen in 1993.