Texting and Chat Messages

Whatsapp, WeChat, Telegram, Facebook, Twitter… Messaging Apps are changing the way we write and communicate with one another. In the 90s and early 2000s, when people texted SMSs (Short Message Service) and were charged for each one they sent, abbreviations and acronyms were a way to save money. With  primitive chats and SMS we saw the firsts emoticons , which not only have survived the Apps revolution, but play an important role in our day-to-day communications since, as the saying goes, “an image is worth a thousand words”.

Today, such abbreviations  have become a way of saving time and space, rather than money. More often than not, it is difficult to keep track of the overwhelming amount of new expressions, acronyms and even neologisms new generations —such as millennials— are constantly coming up with.

To help ease the haze that this flood of new terms may cause, here is a list of the most common ones I’ve been able to collect so far. Hope that helps!

Complete List of Messaging Abbreviations and acronyms

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