Text messaging is now the most popular form of daily communication between British adults, new figures have shown.

After years of increasing use, the amount of time British adults spend speaking on a mobile phone has dropped for the first time.

But the average Briton now sends 200 texts a month, Ofcom’s Communications Market Report found – more than double the figure of four years ago.

Text messaging is now the most common for of communication between friends and families.

More than half (58%) of UK population use text messages at least once a day.

This is more than the figure for face-to-face contact, speaking on a mobile phone and social networking.

A survey now shows that people in Britain would prefer to meet or speak on the phone than communicate by text.

The time spent on a mobile phone is down for the first time and also landlines continues to drop by 10%.

The report also found that British people now spend more hours  social networking on a PC or laptop than 2 years ago. It has now incresed from 3.1 hours to 3.3 hours.

James Thickett, Ofcom’s director of research, said: “Over the past year there have been some major shifts in the way we communicate with each other.

“By far the most popular means of communication on a day-to-day basis is by text messaging.”

He added: “We have known for several years that the volume of calls on a landline has been falling. But for the first time ever we have seen the volume of calls on the mobile phone also declining.”

James Thickett said this was the consequence to the take up of smart phones – enabling people to communicate using social networking, instant messaging or email.

“Texting is seen as a traditional means of communication these days but it is still continuing to grow.”