Texting: from past to present

Sending messages to your friends via your mobile phone has changed so much over the years. First off we started with basic messaging; pressing a button the amount of times for that letter to appear and being limited to 160 characters per text message. Due to the limited characters, text messaging was swiftly shortened to “txt spk” which involved a lot of cutting out letters, allowing us to message more and at a quicker pace.

Popular "txt spk" included:

• Txt bk - text back
• Brb - be right back
• Plz - please
• NV - never mind
• Wuup2? - what are you up to?
• B4 - before
• Rofl - rolling on the floor laughing
• Cz - because
• IDK - I don't know
• NW - no worries
• Cu l8r - see you later
• Thx - thanks

MMS was introduced shortly after this allowing you to send images with text to your friends and family. However, back then these types of messages were only for special occasions as they used to cost around 35p depending on what network you were on.

Nowadays, you wouldn’t even think twice about sending text messages over 160 characters or showing your best friend your new shoes. There are so many apps out there now that allow this type of messaging.

Messaging tools

iMessage is great for sending messages between two Apple products.

Whatsapp available in most app stores allows for messaging, calling and audio exchange.

Telegram similar to Whatsapp but you can have secret chat that once deleted cannot be retrieved.

Facebook Messenger which good to chat to friends or businesses without having to call them.

Spruce up a standard message

Fancy adding “winking faces” or replace words with mini images? Then you need to add emojis to your keyboard. Check out some of our top recommended emoji apps…

Emojidom Smileys is available for iOS and Android devices.

With a more than 2000 smiley faces and stickers available include some famous characters like Spiderman and faces eating McDonalds.

Emoji is available for Android devices only.

This fab app is a new addition to Android and includes different categories which can be send through various messaging applications.

Emoticon Art is only available for iOS devices.

Spice up plain symbols like question marks and arrows. Select from over 1000 special symbols, funny emoticons and smiley faces.