How to type faster on a phone
What a study of 37,000 phone typists found, and the settings and habits that make the biggest difference.
Most people type more on their phone than on a computer, yet almost nobody practises it. The good news is that phone typing speed depends less on talent than on a few choices: how you hold the phone, whether you let autocorrect work, and whether you use the shortcuts your keyboard already has.
How fast do people type on phones?
The largest public study of phone typing, by researchers at Aalto University and the University of Cambridge, recorded 37,370 volunteers typing sentences on their own phones. They averaged 36.2 words per minute, about 15 WPM slower than the same team measured on physical keyboards, and left about twice as many uncorrected errors (2.3% of characters against 1.2%).
| How people typed | Average speed |
|---|---|
| Two thumbs | 38.0 WPM |
| One finger | 29.2 WPM |
| With autocorrect on | 43.4 WPM |
| Mainly word prediction (tapping suggestions) | 32.8 WPM |
| Mainly swipe (gesture) typing | 32.2 WPM |
Speed also fell with age, from 39.6 WPM for volunteers aged 10 to 19 to 26.3 WPM for those aged 50 to 59. The volunteers chose to take part, so the figures describe people who like typing tests rather than everyone, and in the smaller group matched to the US population the gain from autocorrect was not statistically clear. Treat them as a useful picture, not a rule.
Use two thumbs
Two thumbs were the fastest way to type in the study, almost 9 WPM ahead of one finger. Hold the phone with both hands, let the bottom edge rest on your little fingers, and split the keyboard down the middle: left thumb for the left half, right thumb for the right half. It feels slower for a day or two and then overtakes one-finger typing.
Let autocorrect do its job
People who kept autocorrect on were the fastest group, because they could type quickly and let the keyboard fix near misses. Two habits make it work better:
- Keep typing, check at the end. Stopping to fix every letter costs more time than reading the sentence once before sending.
- Teach it your words. Add names and work terms to the keyboard's dictionary so it stops "correcting" them.
Tapping the suggestion bar for every word was slower on average, because looking at the suggestions interrupts typing. Use suggestions for long words, not short ones.
Set up text shortcuts
Both iPhone (Settings, General, Keyboard, Text Replacement) and Gboard on Android (the personal dictionary, with a shortcut for each entry) let you type a few letters and get a whole phrase. Good candidates are your email address, your home address and phrases you send often, such as "On my way". A five-letter shortcut that types forty characters is faster than any amount of practice.
Small changes that add up
- Double-tap Space to type a full stop and a space at the end of a sentence (on by default on most phones).
- Turn on key feedback (a small sound or vibration). It tells you a key registered without looking.
- Try the keyboard height or one-handed mode if your thumbs cannot reach the far keys comfortably.
- Swipe typing was not faster in the study, but some people find it more comfortable one-handed. Try it for a week before deciding.
Measure your phone typing speed
Every TypingSpark typing test works on a phone. Tap the text to bring up your keyboard and start typing. During a test TypingSpark asks the keyboard to turn off autocorrect and capitalisation, so the result shows what your thumbs did rather than what the keyboard fixed. A 1-minute test is the best length on a phone. Compare it with your computer result: a gap of around 15 WPM is typical.
Sources
- Palin, Feit, Kim, Kristensson and Oulasvirta, "How do People Type on Mobile Devices? Observations from a Study with 37,000 Volunteers", MobileHCI 2019. 37,370 volunteers typing on their own phones (last checked 25 October 2026)