Faster Typing on Your Phone: 6 Tips You Can Use Right Now
Swipe typing, text shortcuts, voice input - get the most out of your phone keyboard.
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Your phone can be faster
You type hundreds of messages on your phone every day. But most people only use a fraction of what modern keyboards can do.
Here are 6 tips you can set up in 5 minutes.
1. Enable swipe typing
Instead of tapping individual letters, you glide your finger across the keyboard. Sounds weird, but it's significantly faster than tapping.
- iPhone: Settings > General > Keyboard > enable "Slide to Type"
- Android (Gboard): Gboard settings > enable Glide typing
After a few days, you'll be faster than ever.
2. Set up text shortcuts
Type "omw" and it automatically becomes "On my way!" Or "@@" becomes your full email address.
- iPhone: Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement
- Android: Gboard > Dictionary > Personal dictionary
Best candidates: email address, phone number, common greetings, home address.
3. Train your autocorrect
Autocorrect learns from you. When it corrects a word wrong, deliberately retype it correctly. After 2-3 times, it remembers.
Bonus: Add technical terms you use often as text shortcuts - then autocorrect won't change them anymore.
4. Use one-handed mode
On large phones, you can't reach all keys with your thumb. One-handed mode shrinks the keyboard to one side.
- iPhone: Hold the globe/emoji icon, choose left or right keyboard
- Android: Hold the comma key > One-handed mode
5. Voice input for longer messages
For messages over 2-3 sentences, voice input is almost always faster than typing. The microphone icon on your keyboard starts dictation.
Modern speech-to-text recognizes punctuation automatically. Just say "comma" or "period."
6. Choose the right keyboard app
The default keyboard is fine, but third-party apps offer more:
- Gboard (Google): Best swipe recognition, GIF search, translator built in
- SwiftKey (Microsoft): Best at learning your writing style, multilingual without switching
On desktop, there's even more potential
On your phone, 40-50 words per minute is solid. On a desktop, touch typists hit 60-80 WPM - and you can learn that with 15 minutes a day.
Ready to type faster?
Start now - you'll see results after your very first lesson.