According to Statista, the most popular mobile messenger apps as of January 2024 are WhatsApp (2 billion monthly active users), WeChat (1.3 billion users), Facebook Messenger (979 million users), followed by Telegram (800 million users), Snapchat (750 million users), and QQ (558 million users).

Edison Mail states that text messaging is the preferred mode of communication for most generations, including Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers. It’s only the Silent Generation that overwhelmingly prefers emails and calls to texts. 

Bored Panda got in touch with the moderator team behind the popular r/texts subreddit, and a representative was kind enough to tell us about the online group's history.

“The subreddit started as a place to post phone text message screenshots, as other subreddits didn’t allow them,” they shared what the roots of r/texts were.

“Eventually, other messaging types were added to the subreddit: Discord, Telegram, Instagram DMs, etc,” the moderator said, adding that the community then “became more about conversations.”

We were curious to hear about the subreddit's popularity. According to the moderator, r/texts "had massive growth in 2023."

This happened "due to a change by Reddit that categorized the subreddit and featured the subreddit to users in recommendations." In short, more redditors were able to find the sub and enjoy the comical and bizarre conversations.

According to the mod, "It's 2024, and more people prefer sending a message over a text medium than ever."

Meanwhile, they noted that the r/texts subreddit and the comments section are great places to find out all about the right and wrong ways of using text messages for anyone who's interested. There are tons of examples of what (not) to do!

Probably the biggest advantage of texting is that it’s instantaneous while also allowing for conversations to take place over long stretches of time. You send whatever you want to say, and then the other person will respond to you when they can. It’s very convenient (e.g., compared to having to listen to voice messages). On top of that, there’s always a written record of the entire conversation in case you want to look up some earlier info.

In short, unless you’ve set up some fancy auto-deleting parameters, there’s a (digital) paper trail of everything that’s been said. Moreover, texting allows people to take their time, think about, and edit what they want to say before sending the message. That’s not to say that texting is perfect, though. Far from it!

Even with punctuation, emojis, memes, videos, and gifs, it’s very hard to convey tone, mood, and intentions through messages alone. A call or video chat can tell you loads more about how someone’s feeling. It’s more genuine than communicating through words on a screen.

(Though, some of us still prefer face-to-face communication whenever possible. Body language is super informative! And online communication has no physical aspect to it, aside from you holding your phone.)

Miscommunication can happen whether you’re speaking to someone in person, on the phone, or texting. Usually, if anything seems unclear, you can simply ask the other person to clarify what they meant. But there’s often this sense of awkwardness when you ask someone to explain themselves over text.

Flirting over text alone might not give you an accurate impression of the other person. They might work up a fabulously witty texting game, but in real life, they might be very reserved and awkward.

Similarly, just because someone isn’t the most charming over text doesn’t mean they’re not charismatic in person. We all have our strengths and weaknesses.

If you want to see whether the person you’re texting with might be a potentially good partner for you, the rule of thumb is to move past the messages ASAP. Hop on a call or video chat to see whether there’s any real attraction there.

And, of course, even that is no match for meeting them in person. It’s easier to curate your online image than it is to fake your entire personality during dates.

The r/texts community is very popular, ranking among the top 1% of subreddits. At the time of writing, it boasts 406k members. The idea behind the online group is simple: people post screenshots of funny, weird, or random conversations from their smartphones. However, screenshots from your computer aren’t allowed by the moderators running the popular group.

The mods also point out that screenshots of single messages aren’t allowed either. There needs to be a conversation between two or more people for you to post about it on r/texts. Facebook or X (formerly Twitter) posts also aren’t allowed. Instead, what internet users should focus on are phone texts, as well as messages on WhatsApp, Discord, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, or Telegram. 

Meanwhile, anyone hoping to be an active member of the group should be careful with what they post. For example, you should not be sharing any personal information in your screenshots. That means no names, usernames, or phone numbers. If they’re in the screenshot, you have to make sure you black them out.

On top of that, the members of r/texts have to mark their posts if they’re not suitable for viewing at work. There’s also a zero-tolerance approach to hate speech. Moreover, the moderators have the right to remove any post or comment at any time in order to maintain the integrity of the group as a whole.