They didn’t pick up the phone. They don’t seem to be on GChat and that email you sent two hours ago hasn’t been returned. Zoom isn’t an option—this needs to happen now. So you send a text: “nd ansr re brf ASAP.” And low and behold, the wheels start to turn. 

Unlike Zoom, which sort of exploded onto the communication scene in 2020, texting has been in general use about as long as email. (The first texts were technically sent in the early 1990s, remember pagers?) On its face, it is just another way to connect with someone, really no different than email.