How can you type faster on a phone?

The cheapest changes are habits, not new hardware. In the largest phone study, 37,370 volunteers averaged 36.2 words per minute ( WPM) on their own phones ¹. That study links three habits with higher speeds: typing with both thumbs, leaving autocorrection on, and avoiding word suggestions ². For long text, the bigger gain is speech, which entered text about three times faster than the phone keyboard in a controlled study ³. The full evidence is in our guide to phone typing speed.

Type with both thumbs, because two thumbs was the fastest posture measured

Two thumbs was the fastest posture in the 37,000 volunteer study, at a mean of 38.02 words per minute ⁴. The authors suggest the advantage comes from switching between the two sides of the screen ⁵, though they did not test that explanation directly.

If you already use two thumbs, keep doing it. If you use one finger, the data do not promise that switching will add the same speed, because the people in the study were not assigned a posture. The two thumbs versus one finger question covers that evidence in detail.

Leave autocorrection on, since its users were the fastest group

Participants who used autocorrection averaged 43.4 words per minute, faster than every other group in the study ⁶. The data give no reason to turn it off for speed. The link is an association in observed use, and a matched comparison in the same study was less clear-cut. The autocorrection question explains how much weight to give that result.

Ignore word suggestions unless a word is hard to spell

Word prediction, which means tapping a suggested word, averaged 32.8 words per minute, a little below the 34.8 of people who used no text-entry aid ².

Our practical rule follows from that. Type ordinary words yourself, and reach for a suggestion only when a word is long, unusual or a name you would otherwise misspell. Autocorrection changes a word for you, while a suggestion asks you to stop and choose. That difference in attention is one plausible reason the two do not match, though the study does not test it.

Give swipe typing a few weeks before you judge it

Swipe typing did not raise average speed in the largest phone study, where swipe users averaged slightly less than people with no aid ⁷. The gain the team reports comes later. The Palin team reports that people were almost 10 words per minute faster after practice with a gesture keyboard than with tapping ⁸. We did not open that field study, so read the figure as the team's report of it. The swipe typing question sets out when it is worth switching.

Speak long text, and budget time for the cleanup

When you need to write more than a few sentences, speech is the big lever. In a controlled study on an iPhone, English speech reached 153 words per minute, against 52 on the built-in keyboard ³. Speech also left more uncorrected errors in the final text, at 1.30 percent against 0.79 percent for the keyboard ⁹. Plan a proofreading pass for anything you dictate. The iPhone dictation guide shows how to start.

Our speaking versus typing guide compares the two methods in more detail. For dictation on a computer, Yap, which we make, runs on Mac and Windows, and you can compare download options.

What does not help much

Formal training is one thing that did not separate phone typists in the study. People who had taken a touch typing course for desktop keyboards averaged 35.7 words per minute on phones, slightly below the 36.4 of people who had not ¹⁰. Touch typing is a desktop skill, and our touch typing guide explains the method and what it does and does not change. On a phone, the data do not show it as a shortcut.

A simple way to check your own gains

Speed is easy to misjudge on a single test, so measure before and after a change:

1. Copy the same short passage on your phone three times, with the same keyboard settings.
2. Record words per minute and the number of errors you leave in the final text. The how typing speed is measured guide explains how the counts work.
3. Change one habit for two weeks, such as using both thumbs or swipe typing for ordinary words.
4. Repeat the test and keep the change only if speed rises without more errors.

Keep in mind that these studies describe averages. Your own result, with your own keyboard and your own messages, is the number that matters.