How do you typically type on your smartphone?

[TameRacingDriver]

A bit of a nerdy subject, I appreciate, but to be quite honest, most keyboards on smartphones are extremely annoying in one way or another.

Currently I mainly swipe, and it seems gboard is best for that, but even so there are days it just never seems to get the right word, and on occasions, the swiping seems to just stop working until you swipe like a madman and deliberately enter a long word just to get it to work again.

However, it seems like the least bad option. I've tried Swiftkey (the new one) and the stock Samsung keyboard, and for the most part, both of them seem worse. Swiftkey might have the slight egde for predictions but seems crap for swiping and it looks 'busy'. The stock one just seems a bit mediocre for the most part.

So I'm interested to see how people type and which keyboard they use in an attempt to make it less frustrating to use somehow. In this day of AI, you'd think the autocorrection would solve most typing issues on a small screen by now, but it doesn't seem to be the case.

[Saleen836]

I mainly use speak to type then proof read and correct where needed, it has been known to message someone and forget to proof read which leads to interesting conversations

[Mazinbrum]

One thumb or two?

[TameRacingDriver]

Mazinbrum said:

One thumb or two?

One thumb - swiping while holding the phone in one hand.

Two thumbs - tapping when holding the phone in two hands.

I'd assume...

[Paul Drawmer]

Old and arthritic. It's forefinger stabbing for me.

[EmailAddress]

Paul Drawmer said:

Old and arthritic. It's forefinger stabbing for me.

Is this the tagline for the next Taken.

[Gary29]

Swipe? Never heard of it, especially when it comes to typing?

I used the age old method of two thumbs, and often use the space bar when the phone knows what I'm trying to say and starts auto filling for me.

[Mammasaid]

Swiping for me, it truly is a game changer if you can master it. It's probably more an Android thing as when I try to do it in iOS it's nowhere near as good. That could be, however typing on a large Pixel vs a small iPhone SE.

[snuffy]

With one finger, constantly looking at the keys.

But i can type whole sentences on a computer keyboard without looking at my hands, and then as it starts to go wrong, I have to look to reposition my hands.

[maccboy]

'Hunt and peck' is what it used to be called! Hunting for a letter and pecking it with your finger.

[Riley Blue]

Paul Drawmer said:

Old and arthritic. It's forefinger stabbing for me.

Same here, aging is a real PITA at times.

[MesoForm]

Mammasaid said:

Swiping for me, it truly is a game changer if you can master it. It's probably more an Android thing as when I try to do it in iOS it's nowhere near as good. That could be, however typing on a large Pixel vs a small iPhone SE.

I would've thought swiping on a small phone is easier as you can do it all one handed and swipe with your thumb? At least that's what I do on my iPhone 12mini (so about the same size as the SE).
It was one of the first things I had to install an app for when I swapped from Android to iOS years ago (when the 8 was new, whenever that was!) as iOS didn't support it natively back then. It still messes up sometimes with changing the current word and the previous word if it gets the current one wrong and you have to tap tap tap delete to change it but it's accurate the vast majority of the time.

[Bill]

I tap. Occasionally I swipe by mistake and it's annoying, but not so much I've turned it off.

FWIW I've just tried swiping and it does work but I have to have a good think about it so I can't see me getting into it. Particularly as I use my left thumb and my right index finger and can type pretty quickly, and accurately enough for predictive text to work.

[HTP99]

I type with my thumbs, I've tried the whole swipe thing but I find it takes longer as I concentrate much more, making sure the swiped word is correct, always referring back to check it which kind of defeats the whole thing about it apparently being quicker to do than typing.

May be a hang up from back in the day typing a message on a numerical keypad!

[danb79]

With 2 fat thumbs on my 16 Pro Max and Z Fold 6

[toon10]

I hold the phone with my left hand and type with my right index finger. I've never managed to type using both thumbs like I see the kids doing.

[MitchT]

A combination of my right thumb and predictions on my ageing iPhone 8.

[Strangely Brown]

A combination of tapping and prediction bar. There is no option for that so didn't vote.

[TikTak]

Swiping mainly (when you learn it, game changer) with some tapping here and there for the odd thing I either can't spell or is the 9th suggestion on the swipe.

[C n C]

Well, I voted "tapping" as that's how I normally do it, but due to this thread, I've just had a go at swiping (never tried it before), and it seems to work really well on my iPhone 12 Pro, so I have a feeling that if I were to vote in the future, I'd be answering "swiping".

Thanks for starting the thread OP - that's really useful!