by Cathy Manson

“英语文化随身带”是一个英国电台节目，文章短小精悍，内容包罗万象。将英语文化装进口袋里，利用闲散的时间随身翻阅，英语学习者可以在潜移默化中了解当代英语世界的生活和文化。

随着智能手机的兴起，一夜间，似乎我们都用上了微信，传统短信面临巨大的挑战。陪伴我们多年的短信真的走到尽头了吗？马上听听本期栏目——

If you hear the sound of a handset beeping[嘟嘟响] in a bag or pocket， you could be forgiven for thinking that someone has received a text message. But nowadays there are so many different ways of messaging someone that it could spell[招致] the death of the traditional text as we know it.

Text messaging， or texting， is the art[技术] of sending a short， electronic[电子的] message between two mobile phones or tablets. Text bundles formed an integral[整体的] part of mobile phone monthly plans， with users paying a certain amount[数量] to send messages via[通过] SMS—short message service. But in the last few years， messaging in this manner has been on the decline[下降].

The rise of smartphones and tablets has seen an increase in the use of instant messaging apps， which offer a cheap alternative[另一可选择的] to conventional[常规的] texts. Using wireless internet connections or mobile data networks， people can send limitless numbers of IMs to their friends for very little cost. Unlike traditional mobile texts， the user usually only has to pay to download the app once， after which each message they send is free.

Web developers soon got the message. Instant messaging apps have become popular all over the world. WhatsApp in America and Europe， WeChat in China and KakaoTalk in South Korea are but a few which have attracted hundreds of millions of people， who use the apps to chat to their friends in real time.

These apps allow people to send picture messages for free—something which previously[先前] was quite costly. Many of these apps also allow users to access[使用，获取] a huge range of colourful emoticons and stickers， which are fun ways to help people express their emotions.

Research firm Informa said that almost 19 billion messages were sent per day using chat apps in 2012， compared with 17.6 billion SMS texts. And it expects the chat app market to grow to 50 billion per day by 2014. So does this really mean the end for communication by text？

Pamela Clark-Dickson from Informa doesnt think so. She says that there are a considerable[相当多的] number of people who use normal mobile phones， particularly in developing countries， who prefer the SMS messaging tool： “They dont have mobile data plans， so there is an awfully big base of mobile phone users who are still going to find that SMS is the best messaging experience for them for a while.”

如果你听到手袋或口袋里的手机传出嘟嘟声，你会认为是某人收到短信，这种想法无可厚非。然而现在发送信息的方式实在太多，我们熟知的传统短信可能面临消失的危险。

短信是在两台手机或平板电脑之间发送电子短信息的一种技术。包月套餐包含了短信套餐，使用者通过支付一定金额的金钱以使用短信服务（SMS）发送信息。但在最近几年，用这种方式发送的信息数量在不断下降。

随着智能手机和平板电脑的兴起，即时通信程序的使用量不断增加，从而为人们提供了传统短信的廉价替代品。通过无线网络或手机数据网络，人们花很少的钱就可以向朋友发送无限量的即时消息。和传统手机短信不同，使用者往往只需支付一次下载程序的钱，随后发送信息就免费了。

网络开发者很快深谙此道，即时消息程序在全世界流行起来。美国和欧洲有“WhatsApp”，中国有微信，韩国有“KakaoTalk”——这只是其中几个令数以亿计人趋之若鹜的应用程序。……