We all live in a digital age where email has become a convenient form of communication. People can send each other email messages and not need to spend so much time on the phone each day. It’s a form of communication that’s also used for urgent communications. Email started becoming a popular communication method in the 1990s. At the same time, mobile phone technology became widely available to the masses. One of the selling points of mobile phones is SMS or text messaging. The “Short Message Service” is still in use today by billions around the world In fact, more people are talking to each other over text messages rather than email. That’s not to say that email is becoming obsolete, of course. But, is SMS becoming the “new” email of the 21st century? And, if so, what is that fact Well, it’s not so easy to make a straightforward comparison between the two platforms. They both have their uses in today’s modern world. These days, businesses are turning to SMS more than email when communicating with customers. Here’s why:
SMS is more direct than email
The thing about email is that addresses aren’t just for individuals. They get used for entire departments too! Here is where text messaging reigns supreme. Why? Because when you’ve got a person’s mobile number, you know who the recipient is.
If you send an email to a generation “info@…” address, it could get read by almost anyone at an organization. Companies find that SMS messaging helps them to target individuals rather than entire organizations.
Like email, it’s a two-way form of communication
When you send someone a text message, they can reply to you. Just like with email communication! You might think that only applies to two individuals texting each other, but that’s not the case.
These days, you can use an SMS provider to send and receive messages to clients or other people. Your customer thinks you’re using a mobile to reply. But, as an organization, you can use some software to manage text messages from a computer.
Some SMS solutions even let you reply to those messages by sending an email, believe it or not!
People have less time to read emails
In today’s busy world, we seldom have time to read and reply to email messages. That’s because they are often long and take away valuable minutes of our time.
A text message is different. Each message is short and quick to read. Organizations prefer sending texts to emails because they know they’ll get a higher response. And, don’t forget that we seldom ignore new text messages. It’s a different story with emails, though!
You don’t need specific hardware to send and receive texts
The SMS standard is one that all networks around the world have adopted. That means texts can be sent or received on any mobile device. So, it doesn’t matter if you have an old Nokia or the latest Apple iPhone.
Some email systems are platform-dependent, especially those with added security. There’s also the fact that some email servers can reject incoming messages. With SMS, all texts get sent to their destinations, as long as the recipient is a valid number.
