Peer-reviewed research

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 · DOI 10.1145/3338286.3340120

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Read on October 16, 2026

What it is: Aalto University project page and paper for a large online study of typing on phones. 37,370 volunteers did a browser-based transcription test on their own mobile devices, and the paper reports speed, errors, finger usage, age effects and the use of autocorrection and word prediction.
How much weight it carries: Peer-reviewed MobileHCI paper (best paper honorable mention) with a very large sample and an open dataset. Participants were self-selected visitors of a typing test website, mostly young, female and from the US, so the figures describe people interested in typing rather than the whole population. The authors check results against a US subsample matched to census demographics.

Facts taken from this source

In the phone study, people using auto-correction typed faster, while people who manually chose words suggested by the keyboard typed slower.
“People using auto-correction typed faster. In contrast, people who manually chose words suggested by the keyboard typed slower.” (Study summary)
In an online study of 37,370 volunteers typing on their own phones, the average speed was 36.2 words per minute, with 2.3 percent uncorrected errors.
“a large-scale dataset on mobile text entry collected via a web-based transcription task performed by 37,370 volunteers. The average typing speed was 36.2 WPM with 2.3% uncorrected errors.” (Abstract)
With only one or two fingers, people type about 70 percent as fast on a phone as on a full desktop keyboard.
“people type about 70% as fast on mobile devices as on full desktop keyboards” (Project page: summary of findings)
The phone study reports that with only one or two fingers people type about 70 percent as fast on mobile devices as on full desktop keyboards.
“with only 1 or 2 fingers, people type about 70% as fast on mobile devices as on full desktop keyboards.” (Study summary)
In the phone study, people aged 10 to 19 typed fastest, although they spent less time on their phones than people aged 20 to 39.
“Younger people between 10-19 typed fastest although they spent less time on their mobile compared to those aged 20-39.” (Study summary)
In the 37,000 volunteer phone study, over 74 percent of people typed with both thumbs, which was significantly faster than typing with one thumb or an index finger.
“Over 74% of people used both thumbs for typing which is significantly faster than using one thumb or index finger.” (Study summary)

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