Email: From the "@" Symbol in 1971 to th

Email: From the "@" Symbol in 1971 to the Future—Why It Remains an Indispensable Communication Tool

 

When we open our inboxes daily to handle work emails or receive verification codes, few of us stop to think that this seemingly ordinary communication tool has been with humanity for over half a century. From the first network email sent in 1971 to its current status as a "standard" in business, academic, and official scenarios, the evolution of email is not just a microcosm of technological iteration, but also a force that has profoundly transformed how humans transmit information. Yet amid the rise of instant messaging tools, why does email still stand firm? And where is it headed in the future?

 

The origin of email can be traced back to 1971. That year, American engineer Ray Tomlinson, while working on ARPANET (the predecessor of the Internet), made a groundbreaking attempt: he combined existing file transfer programs with information exchange programs to create a simple application, enabling a message to be sent from one mainframe computer to another for the first time. More crucially, he innovatively introduced the "@" symbol to separate usernames from computer names—forming the format "user@host" that is still universally used for email addresses today. The content of the first email Tomlinson sent has long been lost, but this technological breakthrough laid a key foundation for global communication in the decades to come.

 

However, the popularization of email did not happen overnight; it took decades of technological accumulation and scenario expansion. As early as the 1960s, companies like IBM and Xerox had developed internal proprietary email systems, but these were limited to use within a single enterprise or organization and could not communicate across different networks. It was not until 1983 that the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) was first implemented on ARPANET, solving the core problem of "email interoperability across networks" and laying the technical groundwork for the large-scale development of email.

 

The 1990s marked the transition of email from a "professional tool" to a "mass application." In 1995, SMTP, POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3 for email retrieval), and IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) jointly became industry standards, allowing users not only to send emails but also to synchronize email content across different devices. In 1996, the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) protocol was released, enabling emails to include multimedia content such as images and files—no longer limited to plain text—greatly enhancing their practicality. As free email services were launched by various platforms in the following years, the barrier to entry for using email was further lowered, making it a "must-have" for ordinary Internet users.

 

The 2000s ushered in an "era of feature expansion" for email. Early email accounts had storage capacities of just a few megabytes, with strict limits on attachment sizes. But with the development of cloud storage technology, mainstream email services now offer storage capacities in gigabytes or even terabytes, making large attachment transfers a common practice. Meanwhile, security features like spam filtering and virus scanning have been continuously upgraded to protect users from irrelevant information. The popularity of web-based email freed users from the constraint of "needing a fixed computer to check emails"—now, as long as there is an Internet connection, emails can be accessed and managed on any device. These technological advancements transformed email from a "simple information transmission tool" into a "comprehensive platform integrating storage, management, and collaboration."

 

Today, instant messaging tools (such as WeChat and DingTalk) have long become the mainstream for daily communication, yet email still holds an irreplaceable position in business, academic, and official scenarios. The reason is simple: it possesses formality, archivability, and stability that instant messaging tools cannot match. In business negotiations, important terms need to be confirmed via email as legally valid evidence. In academic exchanges, the submission of papers and transmission of review comments rely on email's clear formatting and attachment management capabilities. For official notifications and document processing, email is also the preferred channel, ensuring the rigor and traceability of information transmission. These characteristics mean that email cannot be replaced in "standardized and formal" scenarios in the short term.

 

Looking ahead, email will not stand still but will evolve toward two key directions: "intelligence" and "high security." In terms of intelligence, AI technology will be deeply integrated into email processing—for example, AI can automatically categorize emails (accurately distinguishing between work emails, promotional emails, and spam), generate email summaries (extracting key information from long emails), and even draft reply drafts based on context, significantly improving user efficiency. In terms of security, as cyber attack methods advance, email will adopt more advanced protection technologies: blockchain can be used for email identity authentication and content verification to prevent tampering or forgery; the exploration of quantum encryption technology is expected to address the threat of quantum computing to existing encryption algorithms, ensuring "absolute security" for email transmission.

 

So, will email exist forever? The answer is yes. As long as business communication requires formal evidence, academic exchanges need standardized carriers, and official notifications demand traceable channels, email will retain its irreplaceable value. It may no longer "dominate" information transmission as it once did, but it will continue to thrive in the "professionalized and scenario-specific" track. From the "@" symbol in 1971 to AI + quantum encryption in the future, the story of email is not just a history of technological evolution, but also a reflection of humanity's ongoing pursuit of "efficient, secure, and standardized communication"—a need that will never become obsolete.