What are text messages?

Text messages are like little notes you send to your friends through their phones.

Imagine you have a friend who lives across town, but you can talk to them instantly without having to walk all the way there. That’s what text messages do, they let you write a short message and send it right to someone else's phone, so they can read it whenever they want.

Phones are like special notebooks that can send notes to other notebooks across town (or even around the world). You just type your message on one phone, press "send," and poof, it shows up on your friend’s phone in seconds!

When you write a text message, you're using letters and spaces, like when you write in your homework. Your phone turns those letters into tiny signals that travel through the air or under the ground (like how telephone wires work). The other phone gets those signals and changes them back into words so your friend can read what you wrote.

You can send pictures too! It’s like sending a drawing of your lunch to show your friend what you ate.