Short message service
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Short Message Service or Silent Messaging Service or SMS are the technical terms and acronym that most people in the U.S. today refer to as text messaging. The connection between the phenomenon of text messaging and the underlying technology is so great that in parts of the world the term "SMS" is used as a synonym for a text message or the act of sending a text message, even when a different protocol is being used.
Length of text messages
Text messaging allows users of mobile phones to send show text-based messages via their phones. Most telephone carriers limit the length of messages to a certain number of text characters. Because the popular message relay system Twitter allows individual to receive messages from it via SMS, the service's creators limited messages posted to it to 140 characters. The popularity of Twitter has led many to associate the number "140" with the maximum length of a text message, although different services place different limits on the length of messages.
Use of text messaging by small businesses
Small businesses use text messaging in a wide variety of ways, including:
- Collaboration among employees
- Marketing to customers (often via Twitter or other services that provide "broadcast" distribution of text messages).
- Emergency messaging
- Notification services: SMS can be used in the same way message notifications or alarms are used.
