Short Message Service (SMS) is the text communication service component of phone; web or mobile communication systems, using standardized communications protocols allow the exchange of short text messages between fixed line or mobile phone devices. SMS text messaging is the most widely used data application in the world, with 2.4 billion active users, or 74% of all mobile phone subscribers.

The idea of adding text messaging to the services of mobile users was not frequent in many communities of mobile communication services at the beginning of the 1980s. The first action plan of the CEPT Group GSM, approved in December 1982, requested "The services and facilities offered in the public switched telephone networks and public data networks... should be available in the mobile system".This target includes the exchange of text messages either directly between mobile stations, or transmitted via Message Handling Systems widely in use since the beginning of the 1980s.

These technical discussions culminated in the sending of the first ever SMS message over Vodafone GSM network in the United Kingdom on December 3, 1992. It was said that Neil Papworth, an engineer of Airwide Solutions, sent the first SMS message from his personal computer to Richard Jarvis of Vodafone. The message was a short and sweet "Merry Christmas".

SMS is a text message that can have up to 160 characters of length that can be sent to cell phones. A cost effective alternative to outgoing calls is SMS and is convenient also. Recently SMS has become identical with the text messages sent to a mobile phone.

SMS is cheaper when compared with voice messaging or web access. SMS is non-intrusive and hence messages will be obtained in a discrete fashion. SMS does not disturb you if you are busy with an important work. SMS has high integration capabilities and so many software programs help you to give text alerts to cell phones if any urgent conditions exist. The advantages of SMS are cost effectiveness, comfort, opinion expression, and spontaneity. The main advantage of SMS is its inexpensiveness. When compared with an international call that costs you several dollars, by sending an SMS the same communication can be done with a significantly lesser amount. SMS is found as the most comfortable way to communicate.

In its early history, SMS messaging growth was very slow as GSM customers were only sending 0.4 messages per month on the average. The reasons for the slow growth were: billing fraud, inefficient charging setups, and non-existent interoperability among the telecom networks.