Text message behavioral interventions: from here to where?

•Text messaging (a.k.a. short message service (SMS)) is a cheap, ubiquitous, and frequently used communication modality.•SMS has been used to deliver interventions that produce small changes in health behaviors.•SMS intervention design should draw on communication, behavioral and human-computer interaction theory.•Limitations of SMS interventions include character limits, message fatigue and issues of security and privacy.•Future SMS interventions should be able to adapt materials to time-varying inputs and interface with other electronic modalities to optimize effectiveness.

Text messaging is an efficient and personal electronic form of communication, making it an ideal modality for remote delivery of behavioral interventions. The ubiquity of cell phones and short message service (SMS) worldwide allow the possibility of SMS behavioral interventions to impact global health. Studies to date suggest that SMS interventions can effectively support health behaviors and may offer advantages compared to other forms of computerized interventions. Program features optimizing user engagement and persuasiveness are suggested to mediate SMS intervention effect. Future research is tasked with identifying what SMS features are useful to which individuals at what times to best help them initiate and maintain health behaviors.