There's a whole range of words in English that we use to talk about communicating with others.
In the 20th century, there was a proliferation of metaphorical extension regarding communication. Basically, words we already had in the language took on additional meanings and gave us new ways to talk about talking to each other.
This shift probably had a lot to do with telephones becoming more and more common over the course of the 20th century. Naturally, we developed words and phrases to talk about talking on the phone, along with the experiences and technology that came with it.
One such phrase is "reaching out." In the physical sense, "reach out" means to stretch your arm out to grab something: "She reached out to take a ticket from the machine at the parking garage entrance."
By the 1900s, "reach out" could also mean "to offer support or sympathy." Later on, it could also mean "to get in touch with someone." You may remember the 1979 Bell System commercial that encouraged you to "reach out and touch someone" via a telephone call.
Another word that evolved is "ping." Initially, "ping" referred to a short, high-pitched sound, like the ringing of a small bell. It later came to describe the ultrasonic pulses used by sonar. The verb "ping" referred to making these sounds: “When the oven timer pinged, he knew dinner was ready.”
In computing, a "ping" is a command that allows one computer to send a data packet to another computer or server to check if it's online and responsive. Over time, the verb "ping" broadened to include the process of sending this network packet to test connectivity.
By the 1990s, “ping” came to refer to sending a a quick message—such as an email or text—to check if someone was available or responsive, much like how the ping command tested whether a device was online.
For more on "ping" and other communication-related words, listen to the audio above.
