Will newer forms of online communication ever replace email and text messaging?

[PeterC]

Email is easy to flag, prioritise and store with a good audit trail. Ideal for B to B and B to C communication. I don't use it for person communications any more it is I formation that needs to be kept.

SMS is ubiquitous across mobile phones. Ideal for B to C notices su h as "don't forget your dental appointment tomorrow". Mu h more efficient than having to processultiple channels depending on the customer. I don't normally use it for outbound messages.

All family and most friend contact is through WhatsApp either voice e or message.

I left the office job before Teams came along. We had an internal messaging app but without an audit trail (at least not without going through IT security) it was pretty useless for most messages.

 

[LethalDrizzle]

SMS will, I suspect, wither and die. Email, however, is absolutely here to stay by virtue of its platform independence, ease of access, and status as the enabling product of other services as a consequence of the former two attributes.

Or, to put it another way, one can very easily get by in modern life without Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Slack, Teams, etc ... but good luck accessing much in terms of online services without an email address.

 

[najaB]

SMS will, I suspect, wither and die.

Not so much wither and die as being replaced naturally by RCS, as planned by the GSM Alliance.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Not so much wither and die as being replaced naturally by RCS, as planned by the GSM Alliance.

SMS will go away when 2G is turned off, which is planned soon-ish. It's a 2G (GSM) service. The future is everything over IP.

Interfacing Apple iMessage to RCS is probably not going to be a hard job.

 

[RuddA]

Does anyone still use MMS? Or should I ask if anyone ever used MMS?

 

[PeterY]

Does anyone still use MMS? Or should I ask if anyone ever used MMS?

I've never used MMS and to be honest I haven't a clue how it works

 

[Ediswan]

Does anyone still use MMS? Or should I ask if anyone ever used MMS?

Used it once, for novelty value.

 

[RuddA]

I didn't use MMS because it was an additional charge rather than being bundled. My wife used it a few times to send pictures to older relatives.

 

[david1212]

SMS will go away when 2G is turned off, which is planned soon-ish. It's a 2G (GSM) service. The future is everything over IP.

Interfacing Apple iMessage to RCS is probably not going to be a hard job.

I wonder when in reality 2G will finish as it effectively ends the use of a standard phone rather than a smartphone.

Not so much wither and die as being replaced naturally by RCS, as planned by the GSM Alliance.

Does RCS require mobile internet enabled as that has a cost just to check if any message?
Receipt of an SMS is free. SMS is a standard way of receiving banking and other log-in / verification / approval codes.

SMS is a universal standard. Whatsapp, Facetime etc require knowing the person you are sending to has either the same or a compatible app.

In time maybe a universal app will be included in all phone OS but what about older phones. Now a 10 year old phone running Android 4 can receive an SMS and the latest expensive smartphone send to any very old and basic phone.

It just seems another case of fixing something that is not broken.

Does anyone still use MMS? Or should I ask if anyone ever used MMS?

No never used it or considered using it due to cost.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I wonder when in reality 2G will finish as it effectively ends the use of a standard phone rather than a smartphone.

It will last longer than 3G as a lot of things use it e.g. burglar alarms. It would prevent use of old Nokias etc but basic 4G/5G phones will no doubt exist.

Does RCS require mobile internet enabled as that has a cost just to check if any message?

Yes. Large data allowances so you don't worry about such things are the norm now.

It just seems another case of fixing something that is not broken.

It is broken. The cost of maintaining equipment for 2G is high compared with the user base. Are you happy to pay the full cost of retaining it, as most users don't need it?

 

[GusB]

Does RCS require mobile internet enabled as that has a cost just to check if any message? Receipt of an SMS is free. SMS is a standard way of receiving banking and other log-in / verification / approval codes

As far as I'm aware RCS will default to SMS if the recipient doesn't have it enabled.

 

[najaB]

Does RCS require mobile internet enabled as that has a cost just to check if any message?

It does require an IP connection, but that isn't necessarily the same as having paid mobile data turned on. Your phone can already connect to data services without you needing an active data plan - for example, you can often renew your pack/top up using the network provider's app without having any data allowance.

 

[Dent]

SMS is a universal standard. Whatsapp, Facetime etc require knowing the person you are sending to has either the same or a compatible app.

In time maybe a universal app will be included in all phone OS but what about older phones.

There can't really be a "universal" app, since each of these networks is a proprietary walled garden which requires registration with a different company.

None of these are a substitute for a universal standard like SMS or email.

 

[Bletchleyite]

There can't really be a "universal" app, since each of these networks is a proprietary walled garden which requires registration with a different company.

None of these are a substitute for a universal standard like SMS or email.

In practice so many people use them that they are, certainly if you have two of them.

 

[najaB]

In practice so many people use them that they are, certainly if you have two of them.

They are not. As I noted above, you cannot (ttbomk) send a message using Telegram to a user on Facebook Messenger.

 

[Bletchleyite]

They are not. As I noted above, you cannot (ttbomk) send a message using Telegram to a user on Facebook Messenger.

If you have all four main ones installed (FB Messenger, Whatsapp, Telegram and Signal) you will be able to contact the vast majority of people. SMS doesn't have any group features so the fact that you can't use those is irrelevant.

 

[najaB]

If you have all four main ones installed (FB Messenger, Whatsapp, Telegram and Signal) you will be able to contact the vast majority of people. SMS doesn't have any group features so the fact that you can't use those is irrelevant.

But if you have a contact who uses FB Messenger and another who uses Telegram you can't, for example, send a single message to both of them whereas you can send a SMS to two recipients. And if Friend A uses only FB Messenger and Friend B uses only Telegram they can't (easily) contact each other, even if you pass their contact details to each other.

 

[Dent]

In practice so many people use them that they are, certainly if you have two of them.

They are still proprietary walled gardens. Communication via these networks is still limited members of that network, at the mercy of the company operating the network, subject to whatever terms that company imposes, and open to exploitation by that company.

 

[telstarbox]

At work I use:
Teams messaging when working at home for quick internal back and forth with screenshots / occasional gifs. It's less distracting than having Outlook open.
Phone call for someone external if it's urgent. Voice tone is useful to see if someone actually understands what you're saying!
Email for someone external either to issue a formal document or drawing (which is required for our QA anyway), or for a query which doesn't need a same day response.

 

[hst43102]

As one of the younger members of this forum, I suspect my views may be a little different! I mostly use FB messenger or Whatsapp, Snapchat for close friends. I hate using instagram messenger, it means that I have too many places and creates a mess!
I also heavily use SMS messaging for friends without facebook or when there is poor quality mobile signal. I have it connected to my messenger app (Android user) so most messaging is all in one place. Email gets used mostly for business / work related matters and sending photos to family.

 

[_toommm_]

For me, it tends to be Facebook Messenger for the generic, big group chats e.g. the course I'm on at uni, nights out. Snapchat tends to be for smaller groups out of these subsets, where you send p*** take photos, videos, and audio messages. WhatsApp is for my family, and iMessage for mates. AFAIK I've not sent an actual text to anyone I know in months, and the last one was probably reserving a seat on Crosscountry on the day.

 

[Phil56]

I think we'll have some form of text (SMS) messaging for the next 2 or 3 decades at least. It's a universal system that everyone can use (well everyone with a phone). The method of delivery may change (i.e. when 2G is turned off) but a similar universal system will take over that doesn't require the loading of several different apps (i.e. messenger, snapchat, whatsapp etc). A text messaging service is a lot easier as the sender doesn't need to know which "apps" the recipient has and doesn't need the sender to have a database of different ways to contact various people.

As we've seen with other things, such as the switch off of analogue TV, people still want to use what they know, i.e. older TVs with a freeview box, rather than rush out to buy new tech.

Likewise with the forecast turn off of analogue landlines - there are plans to issue some kind of "box" for people without broadband.

And let's not forget the turning off of analogue radio which has been delayed yet again due to low take up and people wanting to carry on using what they already have and use, i.e. older radios rather than rushing to buy new digital radios.

Time and time again, very long "changeover" periods are required because people simply see no worth/benefit in changing equipment that works for them, especially when a lot of the time, it's not that simple to change, and requires a lot of research, cost of equipment, etc.

I remember the conflicts when video first came out, i.e. whether VHS or Beta was the best. In the end VHS won the market. But it was noticable that the following tech, i.e. CDs and DVDs were universal, i.e. a single disk type and a single reader type, so the tech and design people learned from the VHS/Beta debacle. Same with personal computers - the brands which used their own operating systems or different kinds of discs soon fell behind and watched the brands using universal systems take over the market.

Back to the original topic, I think that there'll be some kind of universal alternative text messaging system that can continue to be used when everyone is on 5G. Users don't need to know the tech details of it, they'll just want to be able to "send a text" in the same way they've done for the last couple of decades, rather than faff around with multiple apps. People power will win as it has done with the slow digital radio roll out etc.

 

[najaB]

Back to the original topic, I think that there'll be some kind of universal alternative text messaging system that can continue to be used when everyone is on 5G. Users don't need to know the tech details of it, they'll just want to be able to "send a text" in the same way they've done for the last couple of decades, rather than faff around with multiple apps.

That system is, as noted previously, Rich Communication Services (RCS).