How do you type on your phone?

Another good thing in SwiftKey's favour is it can remember all your added custom words if you get a new phone/tablet, if you link it to your Microsoft account.

Hadn't really thought about it but realised that I now use my thumbs. Daughter used to laugh at me as I used to try and do it as I would have done it on a typewriter after 40 years of touch typing

I use an app - SwiftKey - which means I can swipe from letter to letter to form each word - much easier than typing in my opinion!

Many thanks Daffydilly for your Microsoft SwiftKey keyboard suggestion. I wasn't aware of it before but have just downloaded it from Play Store and am playing around with it with promising results.

Haven't mastered the swipe mode just yet, but voice dictation along with their punctuation shortcuts looks like it could be very useful for an old duffer like me.

I find the predictive text helps.
Am using longest finger here.

sunbar

oops......... I just noted voice typing was mentioned by saying "I use microphone"

I love using the microphone, but it sometimes makes me laugh when what appears is not exactly what I said.

oops......... I just noted voice typing was mentioned by saying "I use microphone"

I know this is really late...but I voice type. Mostly. my finger typing is a horrific mess no matter what finger I use. I am a bit surprised that no one here mentioned voice typing!

I watch my DGs type with their thumbs, but I can't do it. They're wickedly fast, though!
I can't do it with my index finger anymore as it causes pain. Instead, I use a rubber ended stylus, and to be perfectly honest, I am lost without these things! I buy them, in packets of 10 or 12, usually from eBay, for around £3:80 every now and then. I have them all over the place, in case I forget to cary one with me!

Thumbs. You can type much faster and don’t obscure the screen with your hand. You can do it either way. Portrait or landscape. I usually do portrait as you use your hands to support phone and not your little fingers.

I use a stylus. Have them scattered all over the house and in bags and pockets.

My Granddaughter laughed at me typing with my finger! It didn’t take me long to train my thumbs. So much quicker now!

Theexwife

If it is a long text I use the dictate option.

I’m a big fan of the dictation function on my phone for all kinds of things.

Farmor15

I must be a bit strange - I use the side of my middle finger! Much prefer typing on laptop - can sort of touch type as taught myself years ago on typewriter.

Middle finger too on both tablet and phone, but the pad (end?) of middle finger. Or my right hand thumb

Greyduster

I’ve been a touch typist for years and can still get up some speed on a laptop keyboard, but on a phone I can only use the index finger of my right hand. On the iPad I can use both hands but still only use the index fingers, even though I don’t have to look where the letters are. I have a plug in keyboard for my iPad but never use it.

I was a certificated 180wpm shorthand writer and 70wpm typist, RSA3 with distinction. I would never be able to revert to thumbs. If I needed to type up a lengthy email or document, it would have to be qwerty keyboard so I could use my keyboard skills. On phone, the quickest way to do it for me, knowing where qwerty keys are, is the middle finger on right hand. Definitely not thumbs. They were trained in the 1980s to key the space bar

Middle finger of left hand.
Have tried using my thumbs, but not for me.

I have a bit of arthritis in my index finger and thumb, so I only use the 4th finger of my right hand to type. My children think this is hilarious.

I use a stylus on my iPad and a smaller one on my phone. Daughter suggested stylus when I got my tablet so I’ve never used my fingers! Never learned to type either.

I watch my AC typing on their phones with both thumbs and I can’t do it for the life of me. Index finger of my right hand is the only way I can do it. I do sometimes use the voice recognition but it always misinterprets something.

i have an apple iphone (son's idea) i was having problems so i bought a rubber tipped stylus, i have the phone for about two years, i was sending a reply to a friend when my son burst out laughing and asked what i was doing, i had not known that i could just press the little icon that looks like a cactus and say the words and the phone wrote them out, just to let you understand i only ever use the phone if i go out as i have a house phone and i don't need the internet, apps, timetables or anything else on my phone, think i am a bit of a techno phobe.

Typing with my thumbs, I just can't do it. I'm left-handed and use the middle finger of my left hand, holding the phone in my right hand.

As a copy typist and word processor operator the only time I used my thumb a was to hit the space bar.

Reluctantly.

I detest having to send text messages, as I a, find it hard to see properly on a phone, b, cannot type with my thumbs, and being an accomplished typist on a keyboard or typewriter find typing with my right index finger annoying.

If I need to send a longer message to those who do not habitually use their e-mail, I e-mail them then send a text message saying Please read e-mail, I have just sent.

Have you tried voice input? It can be surprisingly effective.

Phones aren't really designed for heavy-duty text input though. I wonder if you find your laptop cumbersome because you're using it on your lap? Try sitting at a table.

I'm very bad at typing on my phone, so use a stylus when I can, so much easier.