Neil Papworth first text message

Neil Papworth, sender of the world’s first text message.

What was the first text message ever sent? Who sent it and why?

The first text message over SMS was sent by Neil Papworth on December 3, 1992. It was sent to a colleague of his, Richard Jarvis, a director at Vodafone in the UK.

What did the first text message say? “Merry Christmas.”

Jarvis was at a holiday party and Papworth was still at work, testing the deployment of the first commercial SMS system.

You can listen to the whole story, in Papworth’s own words here.