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In the hours before he flew to Albuquerque, David Pyle wasn't worried about missing his flight.

The travel agency operator, 40, relies on text-messaging alerts from Southwest Airlines for updates on his flights' status.

"Text message alerts on your phone are great, especially if you're running around. Not all phones have e-mail access, but every (cell) phone has text messaging," said Pyle, a San Francisco resident.

Text messaging has evolved into a powerful nonvoice form of communication for cell-phone users, especially younger subscribers who love to trade short notes and updates. The practice has grown in just a few years to the point where more than one-third of cell-phone users regularly send and receive text messages, most of them personal.

Now businesses, governments and nonprofit groups are increasingly finding it handy to provide a wide array of services and information.

In the process they are finding out that text messaging can reach an unusually large audience, is easy to use and offers an immediacy not found in voice calls, e-mail or instant messaging.

Already texting, as it is commonly called, is being used to handle a number of tasks, from delivering bank account balances and dispensing medical advice to coordinating emergency response and providing coupons and marketing pitches.

"It comes down to use and acceptance of text messaging. People are now used to texting, and so businesses want to leverage that," said Nick McQuire, a senior analyst with the Yankee Group. "It's a discreet tool that reaches people on the go and doesn't require a person to pick up a call. They can opt in to when they want to reply."

Text messaging had an inauspicious debut in the 1980s when phone companies used it to alert cell-phone users about incoming voice mails. By the 1990s, text messaging caught on in Europe, where it flourished as a low-cost alternative to regular phone calls.

Text messaging has been more popular in Europe and Asia, where 70 percent or more of cell-phone customers use it. In some countries, more than 80 percent use text messages.

But it hasn't caught on as quickly in the United States, in part because people could not send messages to subscribers of different cellular services until rather recently. The relatively low cost of voice minutes in the United States compared with other countries also kept U.S. subscribers from taking up the habit.

That changed two years ago, when texting caught on with teens and young adults after phone companies began allowing text messages to flow among their networks. Television shows like "American Idol," which allows viewers to text in their votes, have also given the medium a boost.

Now about 35 percent of mobile-phone users text at least occasionally, paying 10 cents a message or a flat monthly fee for unlimited messages. About 48 percent of people said they will probably use text messaging in the coming year, according to M:Metrics, a mobile-marketing-research firm.

According to the wireless-industry association CTIA, 9.8 billion messages were sent in December 2005, up from 2.1 billion in the same month in 2003.

Companies, banks and government agencies are looking for ways to expand their use of text messaging.

Last week, eBay said its customers can now receive text alerts when they are outbid for an auction item. They can also rebid via text message.

Google and other search companies like 4INFO have begun using text messaging to deliver search results over mobile phones. Airlines including Southwest, United and American offer text message alerts about flights.

Financial institutions are also getting into the act. Secure Wireless Transfers of Orange County, Calif., is a new company that will provide bank-account and credit-card balances via text messages starting next month. It will also send alerts about account activity.

San Mateo's Clickatell, one of the leaders in bringing text messaging to the corporate world, helps FedEx alert customers when a package is about to be delivered. It has also enabled security firms like ADT to notify homeowners when their burglar alarms have been tripped.

Pieter De Villiers, CEO of Clickatell, said text messaging is an ideal way to contact people because the message will reach them wherever they are. "In the previous world, you would call someone's home or office," he said.

"Now with mobile phones you're contacting an actual person. We're communicating with people, not places."