Smart phones are still an ever-evolving technology providing capabilities that seemed like only something we’d see in sci-fi, futuristic, fantasy movies. Everyone has a little handheld computer in their pocket! But the concept of a cell phone is about 50 years old now. With them becoming mainstream in the early 90s.
What seems even more crazy is how quickly we’ve adapted this idea of sending a text message over a cellular network. And the wild methods we grew accustomed to in order to do this, no matter how tedious.
Can you believe that at one point in time we had to “add on” data to a cell phone plan? And even paid per text message (outgoing and incoming)? Why do I feel like the cell phone bill was still lower 20 years ago? Even with all that texting.
SMS and the 9-key keypad
It started off with cell phones that only had a standard 9 key keypad, with letters assigned to each of the numerical buttons. Very much like your ordinary household telephone. And to send a text message? Well, you’d spend an hour scrolling through each of the letters, pressing a number x amount of times just to punch out each letter. This was called, multi-tap texting. And boy, was it tedious.
T9
Did you know that T9 stands for “text on 9 keys?” I was today years old when I learned this fun fact after taking a look at a Wikihow on using T9. Funny enough, you can find “T9 keyboards” in the app stores if you are feeling nostalgic and want to get back to some old-school texting.
T9 uses predictive text based on the number you tap on once. So instead of spelling “hello” with 13 key presses, you only need 5 and the technology predicts that “4-3-5-5-6” spells out “hello.”
QWERTY
It wasn’t that much longer after we got used to the T9 method, phones were built with a QWERTY keyboard. The BlackBerry by far the most recognized. And with physical keys it’s basically like having a pocket keyboard with you 24/7.
Physical vs digital keyboards
Now it seems we ALL have these mini-computers with us literally 24/7. The QWERTY keyboard is now digital (with some feedback if you need that sense of touching keys). That may have honestly been the hardest for me to get used to, going from the Blackjack II to the iPhone 3G (wow, can’t believe I remember that one).
Next comes the ability to swipe to text. Seems similar to the idea behind the predictive text of T9. And what about talk to text? A whole new technology that doesn’t require any typing. Except of course when you forget to say the word “period” after every sentence. I don’t use talk to text, but I have to assume it’s gotten way better since it started.
Predictive text and AI
Today’s text and message apps use internal dictionaries and even AI to help assemble the sentences you are looking to type out. Sometimes, going as far as correcting misspelled or grammatically improper words. This fun feature is called “autocorrect” and has caused more hilarious problems than not. Some of the best inside jokes I share with my bestie come from autocorrects gone wild.
And last but certainly not least, we now have AI capable of writing out entire responses based on the message received. Not really requiring a lot of work on our end. Are we at a point where we don’t even need to turn on our phones to converse with others? Our AI secretary can soon just get the job done for us.
We live in insane times. And the rate in which we have adapted to sending simple messages across data networks is incredible. What’s in store for us next?! Can’t wait!