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How Many Text Messages Do You Send a Day?

Displaying poll results.
  9379 votes / 46%
  1937 votes / 9%
  1044 votes / 5%
  334 votes / 1%
over 100
  282 votes / 1%
I'm texting now
  388 votes / 1%
  6977 votes / 34%
20341 total votes.
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How Many Text Messages Do You Send a Day?

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  • by FeatherBoa (469218) on Tuesday January 29, 2013 @12:31PM (#42727279)

    Does it count if I send SMS status reports from systems that I set up and maintain? I mean, technically I think I'm texting myself. Sort of.

  • by stjobe (78285) on Tuesday January 29, 2013 @12:37PM (#42727397) Homepage

    If we're talking SMS from my smartphone, I can't recall ever having sent more than 10 in a single day - but I *can* recall my son saying he broke the 2000 messages/month included in his plan - it's an age thing, I guess ;)

    If we're talking IM, other chat systems, mail, tweets, and G+ updates, it's probably in the "over 100" category.

    • Sure, there's all this political correctness about how it's rude to run over people and crash into cars because you were texting while you should have been driving. But that's not the real reason I don't do that...

      The #$#$* HTC Android 2.1-update1 text application uses too small a font size, and doesn't let the user change the font, so I have to put on my reading glasses if I want to read texts, and I have to take them off if I want to see past the dashboard. Yes, Android has a little microphone widget on

    • How old are you? I'm in my thirties and have send as much as 2500 texts in a month while talking for about 2000 minutes


        I'm 45. Got my first 'cell phone' in 1997. I send about 8-10 texts per week - Most are part of the 2 or 3 text 'conversations' I have per week. I probably send 2 SMS pictures per month.

        • I'm 43. Got my first 'cell phone' in 1993. I regularly send/receive over 3000 texts in a month. Then again, I use the cell phone very little for calls -- like averaging 60 minutes per month.

      • well i'm in my twenties, and I average around 200 texts per day. I guess it is an age thing.

      • I'm 42 and hate texting. I probably send between 1-10 per day but would much rather use email.

        Having a phone with a responsive larger screen would probably make me hate it less, but I have a work phone so am stuck with a Samsung Galaxy Ace for the time being (which is extremely sluggish).
  • Zero! (Score:3, Insightful)

    • by ackthpt (218170)


      Cost isn't my factor, it's I couldn't be bothered If I'm going to interact it's through a phone call.

      • Agreed. I see no reason to SMS someone when I can simply ping them through our favorite IM solution (whichever that is, YMMV) or just, you know, call them.

        • by alphatel (1450715) *
          Indeed, though I send no texts, some people insist on sending them to me.
          • by sdnoob (917382)

            send zero.... receive zero.... our phones have a block on all data and text -- used to get tons of text spam.. not any more. ;p

            verizon, naturally, chose to ignore that account setting (that we had in place for years) when integrating our alltel account, and we had a massive surge in text spam for a couple weeks. it took *that long* to get verizon to add that feature (or rather, the lack of several) back to our plan. next time they fuck up will be the last -- termination fees be damned. verizon sucks.

        • Personally, there are lots of situations I'd rather receiver a text than a phone call (of course, as you said, I'd rather receiver a Google Talk or other IM message even more). A phone call means I have to, at minimum check to see who is calling, and if the call/caller is important enough to me drop what I am doing and have a minimum 1 minute conversation (and an large number of people feel the need to stretch that out into 5 minutes with pointless small talk that has nothing to do with the reason for thei

        • by rwa2 (4391) *

          Yeah, SMS was really supposed to be the "poor man's phone call". But thanks to the marketing geniuses here in the West, it's a "premium feature".

          But really, I just pay for unlimited data, and use my Google Voice # to send / receive SMSs for free when I need to.

      • by mooingyak (720677)


        For me it's the opposite. I wasn't much of a fan of texting when it first gained popularity, but when I realized it meant I wouldn't actually have to speak to people over the phone I decided it was awesome.

      • by metlin (258108)

        A phone call is often extremely inconvenient -- if you're in a meeting, if you have company, or if you're at a loud bar or a club, or if you're traveling, it is hard to answer the phone. But unlike voice, text messages are asynchronous, which is awesome. I don't need to answer it immediately, and I can get to it when I want. Text messages are infinitely more convenient because unlike voice, I can send media (pictures, clips, links etc). It's even more convenient when you have friends across various timezone

      • I find the phone frustratingly inconvenient, especially for swapping simple information, which often takes 5-10 minutes. If I'm going to talk at length to socialize, I do it while hanging out enjoying one another in-person. Also with the phone, I always worry that I'll be interrupting something if I call, and about all of the little nonverbal social niceties: how to end the call without causing offense or implying I'd rather be doing something else (even if I would), noticing when the other person would ra

    • by xaxa (988988)


      My new contract (the SIM arrived today) includes 5000 per month "free". The current company's website suggests I use about 100-150 a month, which sounds about right (maybe 1 a day, but if I'm meeting someone after work or at the weekends it could be 5-10).

      I could email, but most people expect to receive these kind of messages by text.

    • Yeah, same here. I've got nothing against the idea of messages using text, and I like AIM and gchat. But the rates for SMS are just so horrid compared to the actual cost to the company. It's an embodiment of the scum-sucking unchecked corporate greed and the twisted culture of consumers that, for whatever reason, seems to lap it up. My bank account can afford it, but my thriftiness just can't deal with it and gags at the thought.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Message_Service#SMS_today [wikipedia.org]

      http://phys.o [phys.org]
    • by Pieroxy (222434)


      Sucks being in a third world (by telco's standards) country doesn't it?

    • by arth1 (260657)

      When I used text messages daily, back in the 90s, they were free. Not "free as in included in an expensive plan", but free, no matter what plan (or lack thereof) you were on.

      E-mails quickly racked up charges, though. As a consequence, there were several SMS-to-e-mail gateways, both for sending and receiving..

    • I won't send them either because I consider them pointless. By the time you're done composing it you've spent at least as much time as you would calling. I use a PAYG phone, and except for the occasional message from some ID10T, the only texts I get are from my phone company, either reminding me to add air time or confirming that I have, and those are free.
      • Yes and no. I find texting to SOMETIMES be more time-convenient for both parties.

        Yes, by the time you type out a 170char statement you could have easily dialed, waited for the guy to pickup, and talk. But... then HE has to talk. And maybe he's a little too busy at work / home to answer to even answer the phone. Or maybe he answers because it might be urgent, but it's really you asking something that isn't urgent and says he'll call you back. Or maybe it's a question that requires him to look something

    • Ouch, pretty well every phone plan here comes with unlimited texting. Good luck with your third world phone plans.
    • Ting [ting.com] starts at $3/100 txt, min or mb (non-bundled), and T-Mobile's [t-mobile.com] $30 for unlimited texts and either 5gb+100min or 30mb+1500min. Both are no-contract prepaid monthly plans with optional BYOD.

      I decided to go with Ting about a week ago after researching companies for ages. They allow sharing at $6/device, sell new/refurbs below cost, and have separate tiers for voice/data/texts with automatic adjustment (no overages). Here's the first 3 levels for each:
      Minutes: $3/100, $9/500, $18/1k
      Texts: $3/100, $5/1k, $

    • by zazzel (98233)

      I voted "zero", but it's more "one a week". Interestingly, because I have 100 free sms/mo on my plan, still I almost always use WhatsApp. Mainly because I use it to share pics ("should I buy this/that?").

  • by bobthesungeek76036 (2697689) on Tuesday January 29, 2013 @12:48PM (#42727577)
    Her total was consistently 5K-6K/month. I used to get itemized billing and when the bill would come it was too large to fold and would come in a 9x12 envelope. Always in the order of 200pp. AT&T automatically took me off itemized billing...
    • 5500/30 = 183.3 sms per day
      183/16 = 11.5 sms per waking hour
      11/60 = 0.2 sms per waking minute

      So about 1 every five minutes for the entire day. O_O At least she has no time to use your voice minutes!

  • If it's strictly SMS, I seldom use it. These days all I get are SMS spam, and the OTP tokens whenever I bank online. Why pay 10c a message when i can Whatsapp, gtalk or facebook message on my phone for the price of my data plan?

    • by Pieroxy (222434)

      10c a message !!!???!!!! It's been included for ages over here in Europe.

      I still cannot fathom why you pay such outrageous rates for everything wireless (or wired for that matter). Competition is a bitch, but it works over here. We actually got our 4th cellphone carrier last year. Rates instantly dropped by 50% at least. We now have a plan that costs 2€/month !! (internet not included though, but 2h talk and unlimited SMS)

      Everything unlimited fares from $15 to $20 / month

  • rip off. (Score:4, Insightful)



    • I found quite the opposite. I pay 20.40$ monthly for 50minutes anywhere + unlimited texting. I never use a single minute. No 3G either.
    • The true cost of sending and receving SMS text messages may be zero, but your telco incurs a lot of cost in maintaining information on the number of messages you sent and then it has to print a bill, mail it to you, collect your payments, keep records of paid and unpaid bills, etc. The billing process is quite expensive.
      • by Kurast (1662819)

        The upfront costs of building the network of antennas are very large, so the telcos must somehow charge for it. Also the maintenance of the network is no small deal. All this stuff you don't pay for.

      • Print a bill and mail it to you? This isn't the stone age, grampa. Links to bills are texted to you and your payment is autodeducted from your bank account. Nothing hits dead tree anymore.
    • by antdude (79039)

      You can text through e-mails and AIM though. Both are free to send. ;)

    • I'm fairly old (in my fifties), but there are definitely situations where I find texting much more convenient than calling.

    • txting iPhone to iPhone is free via iMessage. 95% of my txts are via iMessage.

      There are android equivalents to iMessage. Many of us pay nothing for our txt messaging.

  • Most days, I don't text at all. Sometimes, though, I text my GF, but I don't think I've ever sent more than 5 texts a day.

  • If I had my way, I would either send none, or use them as an occasional notification for those few times when calling is overkill. As it is now, I usually end up having to send at least four or five messages a day, because for whatever reason my sister insists on using the damn things as her exclusive form of communication. I have a strong preference toward using a phone to actually, you know, call people for communication. Drives me fucking nuts when I have to dick around "typing" on a god damn phone an

    • In the wise words of Homer Simpson, "It takes two to lie, one to lie and one to listen". If you're in a text conversation with your sister, that's your own fault. You're the one replying with text instead of voice. You're the one replying within two minutes instead of half an hour or an hour later. She only texts you because you text back.
  • For the same price I send a text message I can talk for a whole minute on the phone, or leave a message on the "answering machine". Uncle has still an actual answering machine with a cassette tape inside to record messages anyway.
    • I hear the answering-machine bit a lot as a reason to not text. And I'm not going to argue against it (for everyone) because for some, that's fine.

      But for others... well... a fair percentage of my texts involve something specific. Directions, addresses, shopping lists, server names, etc. Things that could be easily lost in translation or forgotten. With a text, assuming I don't make a typo, they have the exact directions with the correct spelling of the street (Walden vs Warden, Sycamore vs Sagamore, Ser

  • How the industry evolved this overpriced model for sending a miniscule amount of data (when they'd be saving bandwidth by encouraging texting) is beyond. me.

  • On average, I send somewhere between 0 and 1 per day.
  • I may send 4 or 5 in a week. . .

  • I would say about 1 a week, or 1/7 a day on average...you insensitive clod!
  • On most days I probably send about 11-20, but some days I can go a lot higher. Averaging it out, probably 20-30.

  • Here in Japan most people use carrier email that supports push, HTML and attachments on feature phones to smartphones, and all free and not counted towards whatever data plan you might be on.
  • Do you have a significant other, yes or no?

  • No SMS messages - email works.
    • The problem is you have to trust that everyone you contact has a smartphone with at least a decent data-plan.

      Unfortunately I know people that have flip-phones that they hate typing on. I know people with smart phones but crazy-small data plans because they don't want to use it much -- meaning they turn off their cellular data when they're out.

      Plus, I find the conversation view on a chat system easier to follow. Not that the email threads are hard to follow, but simpler is sometimes better.

  • All my emails and SMSes are written in text, no fancy HTML or pictures. I also do not use voice messages (aka voicemail).

    This is a weird poll question ;-)

  • by Captain_Chaos (103843) on Wednesday January 30, 2013 @05:23AM (#42735771)
    I voted "11-20", assuming that WhatsApp counts as "text messaging". If not, zero.
  • Can we think before posting a Poll. I send maybe 2 or 3 texts a month where the hells my option?
  • I don't do text messaging much except to my kids. They have iPhones so I am not sure if that is an age thing or maybe iPhones do not do emails as easily as real Smartphones.

    For everything else, there is Gmail. This has the added advantage that I can read it from my tablet home PC or work if I want to.. My gmail does not get lost every time I get a new phone or reset the one I have either. I think I have had Gmail for a long time and I have filled 0.6% of my allotted space. Why do people still use SMS t

  • At work rather than yell across the room or pick up the phone, we click away at the keyboards to ask a question via an instant message tool Technically they are text messages in my eye, they just aren't over the phone. But then again aren't all text messages over the phone really over the internet?

    So 25-50 is pretty standard for me. Although I still prefer picking up the phone or walking over to someone. I like hearing a voice.



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