My kids grew up using cell phones and got really good using their thumbs. It really is faster if you can do it, but I have tried but I cannot get the needed precision. I use my index finger and generally use the Android swipe keyboard, so I’m sliding around rather than tapping.
I chose “Other” because I either type with my thumbs, when I have the soft keyboard displayed, or I use my index finger when I have “Graffiti” (the texting method from the old Palm Pilot days) displayed. I discovered and loaded the Graffiti app shortly after getting my first Android device.
Hmm. I had the French keyboard on, but it was correcting mis-spellings to English.
I do not understand it.
Middle finger. And lots of times it seems appropriate
I swype, usually with my left index finger. But sometimes I use my middle finger. I haven’t used thumbs since I had a physical keyboard on my beloved old Palm Pre.
This is a super interesting question because I didn’t even realize how I was doing this! I favor Big Ass™ phones, and I just tested this out… apparently I type with one thumb (on the left side, where I tend to hold the phone) plus index finger (on the right side). Simultaneously.
Weird.
I’m also an extremely fast self taught typist (computer addict since at least age 11) and my traditional keyboard typing style can only be described as… bizarre.
Very similar to you, I use the Apple version of the swype keyboard with my right index finger.
Old school hard keyboards, starting with my Palm Treo and through my Blackberry years I was a two thumb typist.
You’re far from alone in that. My “home keys” would make a traditional typing teacher cry or scream. But good luck to her (it was always her back in the day) trying to keep up with me.
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?
Thumbs. The trick is to let the autocorrect do it’s job - it’s very good at what it does 85% of the time.
Well, except when my iPhone thinks we’re in Québec.
For about a year, it kept auto-correcting “government” to “gouvernement” and I didn’t always notice.
Right handed, hold phone in portrait mode with right hand and type with right thumb.
On my I-pad I hold in landscape mode use the split keyboard and use both thumbs.
I hold the phone in one hand, and drag the middle finger of my other hand this way and that. Most of the movement is the arm and wrist. It doesn’t feel very different from using my index finger.
The other fingers are loosely curled out of the way.
Oops, I actually use my driving finger, not my index finger.
Portrait mode, thumbs. Tried swipe recently, kind of like it, but can’t break the thumbs habit.
Used thumbs with physical keyboards back when, on a Blackberry and various slide-out jobbies.
Computer, I am a classically-trained home row typist, would make ol’ Mrs. K (high school “keyboarding” teacher) proud!
I generally type with my dominant index finger. I have the swipe keyboard, but sometimes forget to use it.
My first smartphone was a company issued Blackberry with physical keys and I used both thumbs for that, but generally find thumbs unwieldy with a touchscreen.
What is a swipe keyboard?
Hold the phone in my left hand, type with my right thumb.
Swipe is dragging from letter-to-letter, lifting your finger between words. It’s the texting equivalent of cursive script, and uses a lot of predictive pattern matching. So the word pattern is “written” by placing your finger on P, then dragging a-t-e-r-n, then lifting. I usually do a small loop on a double letter, but the algorithm usually figures it out.
It used to require setup to use it, but the modern Gboard (google keyboard) supports swipe with no setup required (well, on my Pixel 3a, anyway).
There’s also Swiftkey, owned by Microsoft. That’s the one I use.