Texting turns 25! Meet the man who sent world's first SMS

All of us have accessed this feature on our mobile phone innumerable times. Before the advent of apps like WhatsApp and Hangout, the only feature used to communicate on a cellphone other than calling was Short Messaging Service, also known as SMS. But do you know when the first text message was sent?

It was sent 25 years ago, on December 3, 1992, by an engineer working with telecom giant Vodafone.The pioneering work that went on to become one of the most popular forms of modern communication today.

British software engineer Neil Papworth, who was then just 22 years old, had sent the first text message from a computer to his colleague Richard Jarvis in the UK. His text message simply said ‘Merry Christmas’.

One year later in 1993, Nokia introduced an SMS feature with a distinctive ‘beep’ to signal an incoming message.

"I had no idea just how popular texting would become, and that this would give rise to emojis and messaging apps used by millions,” Papworth said.

“I only recently told my children that I sent that first text. Looking back with hindsight, it’s clear to see that the Christmas message I sent was a pivotal moment in mobile history," the Sky News quoted him as saying.

Seven years after Papworth’s first SMS message in 1999, texts could finally be exchanged on multiple networks, propelling them into greater popularity.

Today, text messages are now sent by millions across the globe.

And a quarter of a century later, Papworth has recreated a more modern version of the same message using emojis. What a feat!