0

Texting is a word for sending a text message via the Short Message Service (SMS) and available in cell phone services now, distinguished from email.

But I would like to know how strictly you use those words. When you are asked to text a message, should it mean strictly texting via SMS? When you say to someone "text a message", do you expect only texting via SMS or either way--texting or emailing?

Improve this question
3
  • Why would you think it means emails, as well?
    – Tristan r
    Commented Jun 19, 2014 at 13:50
  • 1
    @ Tristan r I am not an English native speaker. I was wondering the usage.
    – 243
    Commented Jun 24, 2014 at 14:42
  • Here in England and the rest of the UK, people just use the word texting to mean text messages on mobile phones. The terms SMS and cell phone are not normally, used here. I have not heard them in use, at all.
    – Tristan r
    Commented Jun 24, 2014 at 15:06

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
1

I've only heard the verb "to text" used to refer to SMS.

The closet computer-network equivalent is known by several terms. The most common of those may be "IM", derived from "Instant Message", which was the name of one particular tool.

Note that this is not e-mail, which is an entirely different set of protocols and applications and behaviors. Nor is it a chat session, which is yet another set of protocols and applications and behaviors.

Until it's possible to send messages from one of these to another without being aware of the difference, we will continue to need separate terms for them.

Improve this answer
1

No, it cannot. Email and SMS are completely different entities, use different protocols on the technical side, and use different conventions and language on the content side. It confuses people if you use one to mean the other.

Improve this answer
1
  • And then something like iMessage comes along to muddy everything up—where you text (?) your friends from your email address to their phone numbers (or any other combination thereof), using the built-in SMS app on the phone, or an IM-like app on a computer. Terminology mayhem ensues.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Jun 19, 2014 at 14:17

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.