Although texting seems to be the preferred mode of communication these days–especially with the teenage demographic–a new study shows that it might be taking a hit from messaging services, especially Facebook’s.
A telecommunications consulting firm called Strand Consult is behind the study, which was released on Friday and shows a marked decline in text use in the last year. They say Facebook is a huge player in the threat against text carriers.
“People who believe that Google is currently the biggest threat to mobile operators may not realise exactly how much time mobile customers are using on Facebook and how Facebook is currently changing the way over 800 million people communicate on a daily basis. The biggest difference between Facebook and Google is that Facebook is a communication tool that people use to keep in touch with their family and friends every day.”
The reason is simple; Facebook, like Apple’s iMessage, is a free messaging tool. Carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile just can’t compete with their bundles; text plans can get pricey, especially if you have more than one user on your account. Add that to the fact that Facebook is such a widely used social media platform and it could spell out trouble for communications companies. And with Facebook changing up their mobile app every day to make it more user-friendly–right before they go public–more and more users are likely to jump on the mobile bandwagon.