The first text message was sent from a computer.

On 3 December 1992, engineer Neil Papworth typed "Merry Christmas" on a PC and sent it over the Vodafone network to a colleague's phone. Phones at the time could receive texts but not write them. The 160-character limit came from spare capacity in GSM's signalling channel. Only in the late 1990s did SMS become a mass medium.

Useful: Many everyday limits, like 160 characters, are technical accidents rather than decisions.

Source: en.wikipedia.org

Alltag MedienMobilfunk

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