The future of SMS
 

I was reading someone asking about sms and autoresponders and thought of this.

I see SMS like this. SMS is still very effective. However we will reach a point where people will not want to sign up to because it's going to become over saturated and (even though they signed up for it) it will feel like spam. I have an iphone, and all of my messages show up in one line going down.

Still most of our text messages are social. One day when all the dentists, and restaurants, hair cutter's, car body shops, etc. hop on board, people aren't going to want to see these text messages lined up all along their phone screen every day. It would get too cluttered. That is, if all of the SMS stays as a pure text message service.

The next step if SMS becomes big enough would probably be a user interface that allows the phone owner to categorize the types of "text messages" they're getting in. As of now this doesn't exist.

I expect it will look something like this. The top of your screen will tell you a number of text messages, the left might be restaurants you've signed up with (so you can choose), the right might have your car places telling you an oil change is needed soon, and who know's what else.

So if apple, android, or some unnamed company had it so they were somewhat scattered and categorized, well I think that would be pretty cool and we're headed to a similar user interface for phones.

What do you guys think about this?

p.s. i know this is a really good idea but is so far out of my spectrum of knowledge (the technicals), figure I'd start a discussion lol.

Re: The future of SMS
 

As long as customers are getting value from being on a list, they will stay. And judging from the number of businesses in my town that are using SMS currently (i.e. almost none except a few big chains) SMS will be effective for many years to come.

The same thing could have been said for email lists back in the 90s. People still opt in every day to email lists they find valuable, and unsubscribe from ones they don't.

Re: The future of SMS
 

As long as there's value to being on a particular distribution list, people will continue to opt-in and want to receive SMS offers.

Re: The future of SMS
 

Customers come and go...that is part of the business :)

But, I do think that would be a nice app to create if it's not already out there.

Re: The future of SMS
 

It is easy to get on and off a list.

Like any list the key is the value of what they send. if they get value they will stay on it.

Re: The future of SMS
 

yes I agree they will stay on the list if the value is good

Re: The future of SMS
 

I just use watsapp :D

Re: The future of SMS
 

Guys there is an article which directs the future of sms:

Beginning of the end for SMS as Whatsapp and co take over | News | TechRadar