Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile
  3. Android
  4. Business
  5. Emerging Tech
  6. Photo Galleries
  7. Wearables
  8. s

Blast from the Past: Samsung’s Mobile Innovations shows evolution of mobile tech

Add as a preferred source on Google
MWC 2026
Read our complete coverage of Mobile World Congress

What a difference two decades make. At MWC 2016, Samsung created a museum of sorts, showcasing many of its biggest mobile tech innovations since 1988. We took a stroll through the exhibit during its Unpacked event for the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. It was mesmerizing to see some of the ancient tech from the ’80s, ’90s, and early ’00s — Mobile tech has come so far since the first mobile phone hit the scene.

Just look at the first Samsung mobile phone from 1988 and that horrid smartwatch from 1999 and compare them to the gorgeous Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, the sleek modular LG G5, the deca-core Zopo Speed 8, the classy Huawei Watch, the stylish Moto 360, and all the other amazing mobile devices we’ve seen at this show or over the past year.

Although Samsung’s museum only represents a selection of its innovations, it does give you an idea of how much the industry has evolved over the past two decades (the period the museum primarily focuses on). Let’s take a stroll through time, shall we?

Malarie Gokey
As DT's Mobile Editor, Malarie runs the Mobile and Wearables sections, which cover smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, and…
Snapchat Planets Meaning: Order, Rankings, and How Friend Solar System Works
Snapchat Planets turns your best friends list into a solar system, and yes, your orbit says a lot
Snapchat Planets being shown on the Snapchat app on iPhone.

Snapchat+ includes several exclusive features, but few have generated as much curiosity as Snapchat Planets. Part of the app's Friend Solar System, it transforms your Best Friends list into a planetary ranking, assigning each of your top eight friends a planet based on how often you interact.

From Mercury, which represents your closest friend, to Neptune, which represents your eighth closest, the system offers a quick visual snapshot of your interactions. But what do the different planets actually mean, and how does Snapchat decide who gets which one?

Read more
How to use WhatsApp Web
We'll show you how to use WhatsApp on your desktop or laptop
WhatsApp Web

As one of the most popular messaging services, you’ve already heard of WhatsApp. From its humble beginnings in 2009—two years before Apple introduced iMessage—to its acquisition by Facebook (now Meta) in 2014, WhatsApp has become the dominant messaging platform around the globe.

In recent years, it's grown even more potent with new features like video messages, self-destructing voice messages, the ability to edit sent messages, and more. We even finally got an WhatsApp iPad app in May 2025.

Read more
What is WhatsApp? How to use the app, tips, tricks, and more
From setting it up to mastering hidden features, here is your complete guide to WhatsApp.
WhatsApp app store listing open on iPhone

There's no shortage of messaging apps out there. The past decade has given us more options than we know what to do with, largely because smartphones demanded something better than plain old SMS.

Both the App Store and the Play Store are packed with apps that promise to revolutionize the way we communicate. Most of them didn't make it. The truth is, a messaging app is only as good as the number of people using it, and most apps never cross that threshold.

Read more