Texting, as it is popularly called, is really the SMS (Short Messaging Service), a protocol allowing text messages of up to 160 characters to be sent to other phones. Most phones these days at least offer texting as a feature, although not everyone activates it.
The convenience and appeal of texting is its capacity, which lets us send short messages to people without the full interruption of a phone call. It's quite handy.
Sending texts (another widely-used term) from App Inventor, using its Texting component (in the Social drawer on the Design page) is easy. A couple of textboxes to collect the phone number and the message to send, put it in a button like below, tap the button, and AI uses the SMS server on your phone to text.
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Of course, easy does not always mean efficient. Yes, AI does texting, but it's more convenient and efficient just to use the texting app that came with your phone for a minimal application like above.
However, unlike the texting app, you...