How texting works (Basics for NewBies)

Have you ever wondered how you are able to send a text from your device to another device in milliseconds?

Well here is the Technology behind it, via the internet we are able to connect with people all around the globe. The internet is a wired and wireless connection of devices, computers, services and smart objects over a network to share, communicate, store and retrieve information.

So what happens when you text?
Your keyboards are connected to a circuit board, which when you type electrical signals are generated and then converted to analog signals (radio waves), these are sent via the antenna to cell towers (masts).

The messages are broken into packets, and these packets can follow any route to any nearby cell tower.

These cell towers are connected via cables to an SMSC;an SMSC is the portion of a wireless network that handles SMS operations, such as routing, forwarding and storing incoming text messages on their way to desired endpoints.From the SMSC these packets are forwarded to the cell towers closer to the recipient, which now forwards these packets to the recipient's device.

This diagram shows how it works

Texts travel miles to get from a user to another user, a lot of encryption and identification goes on in the background to ensure that the text reaches the right user in the right format in which the sender sent it.

So when next you send a text to a friend, just think of how these radio waves must have traveled from cables to cell towers in seconds.