SMS changed the way the world communicates...now it's time for it to die.

The cell phone is the most disruptive piece of technology I can think of in recent history, probably even more than the internet (even though both their histories are quite connected) I'll spare you the detailed history of the cell phone, but to recap, there's been a few mini revolutions that led us to where we are today:

1. The cell phone became practical: Once cell phones were no longer a tool or a toy for rich kids, people began to start counting on them. It was too expensive to have long conversations on them, and not everyone had them, but since someone was usually carrying a cell phone, the phone network became connected to every spot geographically that had signal. 
2. The cell phone became ubiquitous: The current generation has always had cell phones, and even if you're among the generation that adopted them later, the mobile phone changed the entire idea of contact. When every person had a cell phone, you no longer called a PLACE, you called the PERSON. People became used to idea of a central point of contact, and anyone who called your number expected to get you, no matter where you were or what you were doing
3. Communication became asynchronous: With this constant ability to contact anyone at anytime, something had to give. It wasn't practical to always pick up the phone, so, taking a page from internet instant messaging, we started using SMS to send text messages instead of using disruptive voice communication. This allowed us to reach out instantly, but allowed the recipient to respond and react at leisure. 
4. The internet married the cell phone and had lots of baby smart phones: Suddenly, data communication was more popular than voice, and we've finally connected the person directly to the worldwide data network. 

So, there's a very brief and incomplete history of all the little revolutions that made up the one big mobile communication revolution. What does that have to do with SMS?

We're still stuck on mini-revolution 3...

When you send a text message, you're probably paying for the privilege, either by the message or by the month. In most cases, you're probably paying what can delicately be called a shit-load. You type 160 characters, you push the button, and your message goes whizzing off into the ether. You assume it got to the other person, but until you get a response back (which means it got to them, they replied, and their message got back to you) you're just not sure. 

Now, if you have a smartphone, there are any number of better options. You can use the IM functionality built into the Facebook app, you can use a dedicated chat program such as WhatsApp, and if you have an Apple product, you can use the drop in SMS replacement built into the SMS app (it's blue, therefore it's better!) This costs fractions of a penny in data, will tell you when your message arrived, and in most cases tell you when it was read. 

So why are we still sending SMS messages in record numbers? I have a couple of theories

1. We're in love with asynchronicity: You really did have your phone on, and you really did see that message it took you an hour to respond to. You didn't respond because you were busy, or you didn't respond because you didn't want to seem like you were sitting at home bored, or you didn't know what to say. The point is, these new-fangled messaging platforms show people when we've read their messages...THEY KNOW. 
2. We're in love with unreliability: Its a comforting thing to be able to blame external factors when communication breaks down. "They aren't responding because they never got my text." "I never got that group message because Sprint didn't deliver it, and not because they forgot to include me." When we lose that unreliability, we're forced to be accountable. 
3. SMS is built-in: Since our smart phones are built on modern cell phone standards and SMS is in the modern cell phone standard, you have an SMS app on your phone. It's probably got more visibility than any other app, usually has dedicated and separate noises, and doesn't rely on the clunky notification that all your other apps rely on (I'm looking at you iOS!) 
4. There's just too many apps: Facebook, SMS, iMessage, ICQ, Skype, Steam, G-Talk. I have people who talk to me on each of these apps, and each of these apps is another thing I have to have on my phone and check. 

Still, all this comes with a cost, and it's time to change. We're all paying far more money than we should for a service that has a real cost of pennies. There are people who are losing out on fun because they legitimately didn't know things were going on. What do we do?

1. Accept responsibility for real time communication. Don't get weird when you see someone has read your message but not responded to it. Maybe they can't right now, or won't ever. 
2. Embrace the change: Text messaging is here to stay, SMS doesn't have to be. When something new and legitimately better comes along, try to resist the urge to ignore it because it's something new. It just might make things more awesome. 
3. Don't be a platform evangelist. If you're already using something besides SMS, don't stick to it until the bitter end. Anyone who sat through the IM wars in the 1990's remembers how dumb this was.
4. Take messaging to the next level: Maybe you're not a Android kernel dev, so this won't apply to you, but we need to bring the same level of integration that SMS has to other chat functions. The messaging app on everyone's phone needs to support snap-ins that allow you to chat across multiple platforms from the same interface, not 32 different apps.