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Although there are myriad ways to stay in touch with a smartphone, texting via a short message

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service or SMS is still ubiquitous. If you have a cell phone, you can use SMS. But why is that

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still the case today? I mean, think about how many apps you have that use data connections

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and offer such a more feature-rich experience. There's WhatsApp, Snapchat, Facebook Messenger,

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yet despite being an antiquated system, SMS is still as common among smartphone users as, say,

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Starbucks in New York City. So the question is, why? First off, smartphones support SMS natively.

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Even if you're still using an older flip phone, you can stay in touch over SMS.

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There's no need to download an app and go through all the rigor and role of registering

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for an account with some social media platform and worrying if the person you want to contact is

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also on that same platform. If you have a phone number, you have SMS. That makes it very easy to

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reach out to someone regardless of what their other Messenger app or phone maker of choice may be.

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This has continued to make SMS popular as a quick way to reach out to new friends and colleagues,

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as well as with older generations who prefer the simplicity of texting over having multiple

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social media connected Messenger accounts with extra fancy features. Wow! SMS is also very cheap,

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at least if you're in the US where data can get expensive. Although if you're old like me,

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you might remember the days when flip phones ruled the world and you only got so many texts per

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month included in your plan lest you reap the anger of your parents for sending 500 texts to your

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BFF Jill, an increasing number of carriers are offering unlimited texting that won't chew through

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your data allowance. This also means in some ways SMS can be more reliable than other messaging apps.

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Although you need a data connection to use group me or Google Hangouts, SMS only needs a basic cell

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connection. So if you're in an area with limited service, SMS may be your only option for staying

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in touch other than making an actual phone call. Who does that? Although trying to send photos and

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videos over MMS, which is built on top of the SMS standard is slower than other apps, it is still

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a viable option. And since SMS works over a standard cell connection, it's actually been around in

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some form or another since the early 1990s and now we're in the 20s. Meaning that it's become very

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entrenched with around 5 billion users worldwide. It has far, far more adoption than even the most

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popular database Messenger services. This wide adoption has also made SMS very popular with

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businesses. So for example, think about how they provide short five digit codes at sporting events

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to make it easy to report that drunk guy who just won't sit down or how airlines use SMS to quickly

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send updates on whether your flight is delayed without you having to download any kind of additional

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app. Of course, the fact that SMS is a great fallback option for communication doesn't mean that

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itself doesn't have serious limitations. However, there is a movement afoot to bring SMS into the

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modern age with a protocol called rich communication services or RCS. You can learn more about it up

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here, but basically it's going to use a data link to provide additional features like faster speeds

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and read receipts and notifications when someone else is in the middle of typing kind of like iMessage

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for Android, but supported by individual carriers instead of one hardware manufacturer. However,

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bare bones basic SMS will probably be sticking around for a while as a trusty backup. So don't

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look for it to be going away in the near future. Besides, you're going to need it if you're one

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of those people who's helping flip phones and fanny packs make a comeback. So thanks for watching,

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guys. If you liked this video, hit the like button, get subscribed, and always make sure to

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hit us up in the comments with your ideas for topics that we should cover in the future.