This is not something I get in a fuming rage about, but I’m just curious what people think the etiquette is about sending text message to mobile phones late at night.
Now, I suppose we can all agree you don’t ring people late at night unless there’s some kind of emergency. You scare the life out of people and/or wake them up. But what about text messages? For example, a student of mine texted to move our lesson at 2 in the morning. I wasn’t scared or worried but it did wake me up and for this reason I generally avoid texting people after “bedtime” which I judge to be around 23.00. Then again, a late sms doesn’t have the “OMG someone must have been in an accident” effect of a late night phone call and people who don’t want to be woken can probably set their phones so that the texts don’t “bleep”. So I think some people think that it’s more akin to an email and that you can send them whenever you like.
So what do you think? Do you send texts at any time? Or do you get annoyed if people text you about something trivial late at night?
For most people the default phone setting is that an incoming message will make a sound or vibrate (or whatever), so no, you should consider texting similar to calling. If you must contact someone late at night: send them an e-mail.
Same as emails - text messages don’t have to be addressed immediately (unlike a phone call) so send 'em any time. The receiver has the control over what alerts he wants, and when they should occur.
I say Nay.
I run an IT sub-department and our systems page us via text message when they are in distress. Even when I am not the person on call I need to receive and respond to these messages because I’m in charge and the om-call person might need me, or the situation might be politically sensitive and need special communication. So I need to be able to hear my phone while I am in bed. Texts and calls are equally disruptive and will bring me out of a deep sleep ubruptly, ready(ish) to respond to a crisis. I get very annoyed when I get personal texts after 9pm, and politely ask people to refrain from all but urgent communications after 9.
I make sure all of my friends know my phone is also my alarm clock, so it’s right next to my bed. And regardless of if it makes a noise, my phone still lights up whenever a text message comes through - so I really appreciate not being sent texts after midnight unless it’s something that really needs to be sent right at that second. I extend the same courtesy to my friends. If it’s not essential or urgent you can just as readily save it as a draft and send it in the morning.
I’m phone illiterate, so I don’t know what the actual answer is. But, if smart phones are so smart, they really ought to have a way to set them to “don’t alert me to incoming text messages between 9 pm and 7 am” or something like that—and there ought to be a way for a sender to override the “silent” setting, or to send texts (and make calls) at different levels of urgency.
They’re not quite that smart yet, unfortunately. Great ideas, though. Could you please go work for the Apple iPhone OS team? 
I don’t call or text people after 9:00 pm unless it’s a good friend or relative whom I know will be up. Occasionally I will text later if I have to give someone a message they’ll need in the morning and I’m not sure they read their email early enough.
Not to mention some people don’t have smart phones, but still have phones they use as alarms or have to keep close at hand for emergencies.
Excellent point. I have an iPhone, which I love, but I miss my old Samsung M500 “dumb phone.” That thing was indestructible and fit in any pocket!
I know no one has really suggested it, but I think asking or expecting people to arrange their cell phone habits so they will not be disturbed by late night text messages would be the equivalent of expecting your grandmother to turn off the ringer on her landline every night so you can phone her and leave messages whenever you feel like it.
I don’t assume that everyone’s on the same page as me re: late night texting, but this is why I try to ensure anyone who does have my number is aware of how I use my phone, and that I don’t really appreciate my phone going off late, even if it is “just” a text message.
I never thought about this til now, but my phone chirps when I get e-mails, so I may be disturbing people without even realizing it, since I answer and send e-mails at all hours. I knew not to send a text too early, although in the case of my son, he would probably sleep through the beep anyway.
I don’t keep my phone by me at night so it wouldn’t bother me, but I have a land line for emergencies.
Some sort of mode setting, perhaps; table (ring for everything), pocket (vibrate for everything), night (ring for calls, quiet for text messages unless they’re from your IT system), or whatever other modes people can think of.
I don’t know if that would be implemented at the OS level, but it might work.
You can’t control what other people do, but it’s easy to control what *you *do. I don’t care when people call or text me. If I’m sleeping or don’t care to take messages at any particular time, I realize the onus is on me to prevent being bothered. My old dumbphone, which I use as my alarm clock, can be set up so that the alarm will sound but text messages and calls do not make sound. I turn the phone facedown so it doesn’t light up. It’s really not difficult.
You could also use a standalone alarm clock, turn your phone to silent, and charge it in a different room than you sleep.
I turn off my phone when it’s sleepy-time.
By the way, most phones, even old dumb phones, will work as alarm clocks even when turned off. If you set the alarm and turn the phone off, it will work just like an alarm clock and do nothing else. Standard feature.
By the same token I can control when I text people. Which means never late at night; seems like many people keep ther phones in reach when they sleep and I know both my husband and I do. I took my mom to task for texting me in the middle of the night just this week actually. (though that issue had some timezone obliviousness thrown in as well,)
Nay! Many phones will beep incessantly if a message is left unopened. I would not text someone unless I would call them at that time.
Yeah, I also know you can set phones (even “dumb phones” such as mine) so that they don’t beep for a text. But I’m not sure that everyone knows you can or how to. And the ones who do, probably don’t think to do it half the time, unless they have a problem with many people texting them at all hours. With me a late text only happens once a month or so, I go “huh” and then back to sleep so it’s not like it’s a huge deal. But it is enough for me to err on the side of caution about when I send texts to others, just because I’d avoid disturbing people and I have no urgent need to act otherwise.
It’s “yea or nay,” not “yay.”
I send and receive texts at all hours. My phone just gives a pair of quick vibrates when I get a text so it isn’t enough to wake me up.