Fact · Typing and writing speed
70percent
With only one or two fingers, people type about 70 percent as fast on a phone as on a full desktop keyboard.
Checked against its source on October 16, 2026
In the source's own words
“people type about 70% as fast on mobile devices as on full desktop keyboards”
How do People Type on Mobile Devices? Observations from a Study with 37,000 Volunteers, Kseniia Palin et al., Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (MobileHCI 2019), 2019, Project page: summary of findings.
Open the original (DOI 10.1145/3338286.3340120)- What it measures
- The authors summarize their 37,000-volunteer study on the project page. The percentage compares one- and two-finger phone typing with desktop keyboard typing.
- What it does not show
- A summary statement on the authors' project page. The full paper reports phone speeds directly.