# Do you type on your smartphone with your thumbs? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 24, 2020, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-type-on-your-smartphone-with-your-thumbs/923770 "2020-10-24T16:12:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-type-on-your-smartphone-with-your-thumbs/923770/41 "2020-10-25T05:26:51Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > _How_ can you type with your middle fingers? I just can’t even picture this. Are you holding your hand with your fingers splayed apart like you’re holding a tiny tea cup or something? I hold the phone in my right hand - I’m left-handed - and swipe type with my left middle finger. My index finger is curled slightly as I do so. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-type-on-your-smartphone-with-your-thumbs/923770/42 "2020-10-25T05:28:57Z")
I use both thumbs most often. I did that even back on devices with multiple keys. It never occurred to me that my thumbs were particularly dexterous, though I admit I play both piano and video games, both of which use thumbs a lot. It just seemed the most logical. The slip joint makes it easy to move side to side as well as up and down without my hands moving (meaning it can just grip the device), and having two means I can reuse the mental spatial map I have from using a proper keyboard. (If the keys were real, I probably would have learned to thumb-type without looking by now. But I can’t do that with onscreen keys.) I had assumed all this time that Swype was for people who needed to use their device one handed, which I admit I’ve very occasionally had to do. It’s hard to move your thumb up and down while holding onto something, so swiping might be easier. I never considered people might hold the device with one hand and use the other hand only. For me and how I type, it’s both slower and messes up way, way too often. I assume that, if you need it, you can adjust to figure out how to get the words out, but I never bothered since it was so much slower for me. And this was using Google’s Gboard (which I wish would let you turn off the buttons you don’t need.) ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-type-on-your-smartphone-with-your-thumbs/923770/43 "2020-10-25T05:36:47Z")
Fascinating. I had no idea. 🧐 ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-type-on-your-smartphone-with-your-thumbs/923770/44 "2020-10-25T05:48:45Z")
I hold it in my dominant right hand, and do everything with my right thumb, unless I’m in portrait mode, in which case I use my right index finder instead. My left hand rarely touches my phone. It’s not like I have small hands and amazing dexterity - in fact, I’m a clumsy oaf with giant shovel hands. It’s just that it’s more comfortable for me that way. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-type-on-your-smartphone-with-your-thumbs/923770/45 "2020-10-25T07:05:07Z")
One thumb, swipe. I hold the phone in my right hand and use the right thumb. Been doing that forever. (On my iPad I swipe with an index finger while holding it with my other hand) ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-type-on-your-smartphone-with-your-thumbs/923770/46 "2020-10-25T11:08:13Z")
Index finger or stylus. I prefer the stylus, because I hate finger smudges on the screen. I rarely use my thumbs. This goes for my phone and my tablet. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-type-on-your-smartphone-with-your-thumbs/923770/47 "2020-10-25T13:23:20Z")
I’m trying to picture how you hold your phone in portrait mode with your right hand and type with your right index finger. Could you please explain? ---
**Author:** ![MoonMoon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonmoon/32/2959_2.png) [@MoonMoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoonMoon)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-type-on-your-smartphone-with-your-thumbs/923770/48 "2020-10-25T13:40:36Z")
Both thumbs is so much faster. Some of these answers explain the long “3 dots” wait time when chatting or texting with some people. 😉 I have large hands and have no issues with thumb typing. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-type-on-your-smartphone-with-your-thumbs/923770/49 "2020-10-25T14:19:54Z")
I said Swipe keyboard, but the Swiftkey is the one I use. It usually figures out what I meant to swipe, or swift, if I miss a letter or two. My Note 20 came with a dictation app installed. It is very good at recognizing my voice with few errors. I can dictate, then select, copy, paste into an email or text app faster than I can swipe it in. Not for a couple of words, but these days it seems texts are getting much longer than a sentence or two. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-type-on-your-smartphone-with-your-thumbs/923770/50 "2020-10-25T14:38:02Z")
I used to type with two thumbs, and my speed increased a lot when I moved to Swype. If I’m typing a password, or an uncommon word that my keyboard wants to autocorrect away, I still sometimes use two thumbs. I switched when I got the keyboard named “Swype”, which invented the concept. But it got larger and larger and slower and slower (as in, sometimes my phone would freeze) so I switched to the Google keyboard. Swype was more accurate, and maybe I should give it another try. Swype based its autocorrection off a dictionary that you could explicitly add to, whereas Google tries to figure that out. The result is that Swype knew the correct spelling of my name, and my husband’s name, and considered them both to be “words to aim at while autocorrecting”, whereas Google keeps trying to “fix” our names to make them “real words”. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-type-on-your-smartphone-with-your-thumbs/923770/51 "2020-10-25T14:56:04Z")
I use my right hand thumb on the Apple swipe keyboard. Oddly, I almost almost get the correct word swiping with my thumb, but attempting to type individual keys akways rnds ip lookibg ljke thisd. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-type-on-your-smartphone-with-your-thumbs/923770/52 "2020-10-25T15:14:03Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > whereas Google keeps trying to “fix” our names to make them “real words”. Odd, my Google keyboard does a phenomenal job of learning. It knows and auto-fills all of my kids’ names, and even some “nonsense” words my friends and I use that have meaning for us, but no place in English! ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-type-on-your-smartphone-with-your-thumbs/923770/53 "2020-10-25T15:23:34Z")
If I’ve used a word recently, it’s good about re-using it. But it keeps “forgetting” words. Also, I have a large enough vocabuary that it’s not uncommon for me to want to use an uncommon word that I haven’t used on google before. And it really wants to steer me to common words, even if it knows the word I am aiming for. And maybe our names are just too close to a lot of common words. Anyway, it’s really annoying. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-type-on-your-smartphone-with-your-thumbs/923770/54 "2020-10-25T16:48:54Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Swype was more accurate, and maybe I should give it another try. Swype has been discontinued and is no longer available. I can recommend Swiftkey as a good alternative. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-type-on-your-smartphone-with-your-thumbs/923770/55 "2020-10-25T17:06:51Z")
I tried swiftkey, and didn’t care for it. I guess I’ll stick with Google keyboard. ---
**Author:** ![Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heffalump_and_roo/32/7691_2.png) [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-type-on-your-smartphone-with-your-thumbs/923770/56 "2020-10-25T18:29:37Z")
Thank you to **puzzlegal** , **Kron** , **Northern\_Piper** and anyone else who talked about the swipe keyboard. I just tried it. I like it! I’m just as slow but watching the words form looks like magic so it’s more fun. Sometimes I like their suggestions over what I was going to say. 🤓 ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-type-on-your-smartphone-with-your-thumbs/923770/57 "2020-10-25T20:09:39Z")
> [@FinsToTheLeft](#): > > Very similar to you, I use the Apple version of the swype keyboard with my right index finger. So I typed this out on my iPad without really thinking. I actually hold the phone in my left hand and swipe with my left thumb! When you do things without thinking about it it’s hard to describe the mechanics without looking at it. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-type-on-your-smartphone-with-your-thumbs/923770/58 "2020-10-25T20:13:13Z")
Please would someone tell me how to do the iphone and ipad versions of Swype like keyboards. Thank you! Is it an app? Or a specific keyboard. I‘lol need, straight simple words : D ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-type-on-your-smartphone-with-your-thumbs/923770/59 "2020-10-25T20:17:27Z")
I said “Other” because I use the swype keyboard. However, when I have to type letter by letter, I use my index finger. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-type-on-your-smartphone-with-your-thumbs/923770/60 "2020-10-25T21:28:14Z")
I just learned from this thread about swiping. It seems to be built into my iPhone. I did not know that. 😲 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-type-on-your-smartphone-with-your-thumbs/923770.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-type-on-your-smartphone-with-your-thumbs/923770.md?page=4)