It’s amazing to watch our language evolve these days. With the rise of instant messaging and texting, it seems that written communication has changed more rapidly and completely than at any other point in history. Granted, I’m no historian, so I could be way off. But just look at a text conversation between two teenagers, and you’ll understand what I mean. Even though I’m fairly well-versed in text-speak, some of them are still incomprehensible to me. I can’t imagine what it all looks like to people in their 50’s and such.

If you’re a parent who texts with a child that insists on using text-speak, there might be a solution for you. (Other than just teaching your kids to text proper words to you, that is.) SMS Corrector is a free Android app that can automatically translate text-speak into actual words. You can even install it on your kid’s phone, so that it corrects their outgoing messages. The app is free, so there’s no reason not to give it a try.