Article Invisible Whispers: Accounts of SMS Communication in Shared Physical Space Aksel H. Tjora Norwegian University of Science and Technology Abstract The use of short message services (SMS) on mobile phones has gained huge popularity in most western and many developing countries – so much so that it has become established as the preferred medium for mobile communication especially among young people. This article explores SMS as used for discreet communication between people in the same physical space (‘shared physical space SMS’ – or ‘SPS-SMS’). Drawing from semi-structured interviews with young people in Norway, 10 different scenarios of SPS-SMS use are explored and analysed within an interactionist framework. These sites of SPS-SMS are presented here as ‘communicative affordances’. It is concluded that the mobile phone, by the application of SPS-SMS, affords communicative layers of transparency, by which various SMS users maintain semi-synchronous communication, both for care and coordination. Although a qualitative study of this nature does not lend itself to generalizations about SPS-SMS communication, it does demonstrate how detailed studies of extraordinary uses of mediated communication may be used to widen analyses of social interaction. Keywords affordance / discreetness / Goffman / mobile phones / SMS Background The social and interactive contexts of using SMS (short message service) on the mobile phone have become highly differentiated especially among young people who have grown up with this form of communication. In the context of Nordic countries it could certainly be argued that using SMS is a straightforward way of communicating even potentially emotionally sensitive information Corresponding author: Aksel H. Tjora, Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Dragvoll Campus, 7491 Trondheim, Norway Email: akselht@svt.ntnu.no Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 17(2) 193–211 ª The Author(s) 2011 Reprints and permission: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1354856510394604 con.sagepub.com