SMS works really well in places that have poorer coverage / worse networks. That's partially because it doesn't rely on the 'data' coverage but fundamental telephony technologies that have been around much longer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Message_Service_technica...). So basically if you have a signal of any kind, SMS will probably work reliably. Then there's the fact that you don't need any extra app or identity to use it. If you have a phone with a plan, you have no barriers to using SMS. Both these aspects are not as true for the software over Internet messaging solutions, and I think that's why SMS is still widely used and will continue to be widely used.

Back in 2003 I was chatting with a Dutch guy who was ragging on the US because we hardly used SMS. I guess we will eventually catch up to what the rest of the world is using now as they move on to something more spectacular.

Huh. Strong statement. Maybe look into M-Pesa.

«Customers who sign up for the M-Pesa service can convert between e-cash and real cash (these are called cash-in / cash-out transactions), and can transfer e-cash from their account to that of another account holder via SMS.»

https://digital.hbs.edu/platform-rctom/submission/m-pesa-a-m...

To add some context, back when Reporting Wheel was developed the target audience mainly used feature phones. Even today, we run IVR and SMS campaigns instead in lots of countries (instead of using WhatsApp/Vibe/etc or even using a mobile-friendly web app) due to the smartphone penetration still being relatively low.

(I work on Manas.Tech, the partners of InSTEDD that developed the Reporting Wheel and today run nation-scale surveys using Surveda: https://manas.tech/projects/surveda/ )

Plenty of people still use SMS.

Easier than to find if the contact is on Signal/Messenger/Whats'app/Whatever and it works even without having a data plan.

SMS is fantastic. In my country there are a few popular messaging apps, it seems like to be connected to everyone you need to be on all of them; but you don’t, everyone already has a phone number, and it just works.

You can send hyperlinks if you want, so the medium isn’t really all that limiting.