The strange SMS

Question

I was talking with a friend via SMS when suddently, he sent me a strange message :

(16)(39)(26)(36)(25)(34)(12)(34)(47)(36)(28)(18)(36)(33)(22)(12)(18)(18)(23)(37)(39)

I asked what was going on but he didn't answer me ...
Can someone help me, what did he tell me ?

Hints

Hint 1 :

Tags can help you

Hint 2 :

Context is like size ... it matters.

Hint 3 :

This is a joke, there are only 2 hints.

I edited the question to correct the sentence – The random guy Aug 04 '15 at 13:50 — The random guy, Aug 04 '15 at 13:50

score 42 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 04 '15 at 22:51

42

If you interpret each two-digit number as

The second number repeated the first number of times, so that (39) becomes 999,

We can interpret the full string as:

6-999-66-666-55-444-2-444-7777-666-88-8-666-333-999-777-33-8-8-1-1

Which looks a lot like

Texting on an old phone keyboard.

Interpreting the numbers in this way gives us the string

MYNOKIAISOUTOFYRETT.,

Which, with spaces, says

My Nokia is out of yrett.,

I expect this last word is 'battery' backwards, since ".," would be AB if it were on the second key, and not the first. I have yet to determine why that last word is backwards in the first place.

edited Aug 04 '15 at 22:51

Len

8,936
2
30
65

answered Aug 04 '15 at 13:45

Bailey M

16,973
2
69
119

7

Was it really THAT easy ? – The random guy Aug 04 '15 at 13:48
@therandomguy, tell us why that last word is backwards! – Glinka Mar 13 '16 at 14:28

The strange SMS

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