Game Over for SMS?

Ah, SMS..... Plenty of you may not know this (a fast Google might help), but SMS actually stands for Short Message Service. Nifty.

SMS is still a popular & in my view, reliable way of communicating with someone. However, since smartphones are so popular these days & knowledge on rings is going through the roof, services like WhatsApp & Ping have popped up.

These services replace SMS, fundamentally. Judging by the App Store description, that is what they objective to do as well. What WhatsApp & others like it do, is they let you send messages to someone over the net, using your knowledge connection. Of coursework, the recipient of your message has to have the application installed on their phone, as well.

So, most of us, at least in my country, have limitless knowledge designs. Thinking about WhatsApp makes use of your phone's knowledge connection to send messages, you can send limitless messages! So, knowing this, will you ever send an SMS again? Most likely not.

Plenty of people have smartphones these days, so in case you are in luck, & your friends have smartphones with WhatsApp or something similar installed, you'll be able to send messages - fundamentally at no cost. I think you'll like that idea, won't you? Yeah, me to - don't get me wrong. But.... your carrier might not be as impressed.

Carriers make a ' poo-ton ' of money from SMS. However, they get NOTHING when you sent a message to your mate using something like WhatsApp. You pay, in most cases anyway, a fixed amount of money for your knowledge plan per month. So, fundamentally..... You can send a million messages for the cost of whatever you pay for your knowledge plan.

I think you get the picture... carriers are actually screwed out of some profit here. Ought to you care? Not. It is there issue, right? It is.

Can carriers do anything? Yes, & in countries like the United States & others, they have. What they do is, they limit the amount of knowledge you can use per month. So, in lieu of limitless, you may now use GB of knowledge & not a byte (or bit?) more.

Of coursework, they don't limit knowledge designs because of this. There are a lot of other reasons. However, the knowledge cap is convenient for carriers to fight things like WhatsApp.

Don't be concerned however, if the only thing you do is message your mom then you ought to not worry. Messages are short, & text based, so they don't use plenty of knowledge when being sent. Knowledge caps are annoying when you are an immense user of video services (YouTube, Netflix). Besides, I still use SMS if I require someone to get something, because WhatsApp can be unreliable sometimes. I like WhatsApp, though. It is a terrific solution to communicate with relatives & friends. It saves a LOT of money in some cases.

For example, if your mate lives abroad. Sending SMS to a foreign country can get pricey. But, if your friends phone is connected to the net, they will get your message & it won't cost you a thing.

There is a lot to be said for apps like What Sapp, but game over for SMS? Not necessarily & not yet anyway.