Text messaging peaked in the early 2010s: Americans sent well over a trillion texts a year, teenagers sent thousands a month, and unlimited texting was the must-have plan feature. On feature phones it meant T9 predictive typing on a numeric keypad; on BlackBerrys it meant BBM; WhatsApp existed but was small.
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Feature phones
What most of the world actually carried
Smartphones were still a minority in 2010: roughly one in five phones sold worldwide that year was a smartphone, according to Gartner. Most people carried feature phones, from Nokia candybars and...
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BlackBerry Messenger (BBM)
PINs, the D and the R, and free unlimited messaging
BBM let BlackBerry owners message each other free over the data plan, with delivered and read receipts, group chats and PIN-swapping as a social ritual. In 2010 it was a major reason teenagers in the...
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Mobile data in 2010: 3G, caps, and the first 4G
A megabit or two on a good day, and the end of unlimited
Most smartphones in 2010 used 3G networks that delivered a megabit or two in practice, enough for email, Facebook and a slow YouTube video. AT&T ended unlimited data for new iPhone customers in June...
