These are messages that are sent over mobile networks and they could be originating from a phone or a web server. The short sms are used to pass brief and concise text messages to the recipient if they are not in a situation to pick any calls or if they are offline and you would like them to get the message when they switch their phones back online. A short SMS has a pre-set number of alphanumeric characters that one can type and it is set at 160 by just about all the mobile service providers. However, one can surpass this number and the extra characters in the short sms shall be billed as another sms. The short sms is the most prevalent and the most renowned data application in the world since it has 2.4 billion subscribers as cited in Wikipedia which translates to 74% of all mobile subscribers.