Tip of the Day: Increase Your iPhone Typing Speed

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Messages, emails, notes, reminders, there are so many ways to give your thumbs a workout while using an iPhone. Getting your iPhone typing up to speed can be a real time saver. Here are a few suggestions that will have you thumbing out messages speedily and with ease:

1. Practice. The more you type with your phone, the faster you will get. This is why teenagers, who communicate almost exclusively via text, can type entire novels to their friends under the dinner table in-between taking bites of casserole and ignoring your attempts to bond with them.

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2. Type in landscape mode. The more spacious keyboard may make it easier for you to type quickly and accurately. Especially if you have larger hands.

 

3. Hold and slide for punctuation, symbols, and capitals. This is much faster than tapping the number and capitalization buttons and then tapping the symbol or letter you need.

 

4. Trust in auto correct. The auto correct feature is surprisingly accurate. Type as fast as you like and most of the time auto correct will fix your mistakes. Just make sure to proofread before you hit send or you may end up on Damn You Auto Correct!

 

5. Work around auto correct. Is there a word you use frequently that auto correct keeps "correcting" when you don't want it to? You can work around this by creating a shortcut. Just go to Settings>Keyboard>Add New Shortcut. Enter the word you don't want corrected in the Phrase field, but leave the Shortcut field blank. 

6. Dictate your message. Technically it's not typing, but it will get your message written fast; and that's the point, right? 

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Author Details

Sarah Kingsbury's picture

Author Details

Sarah Kingsbury

As the Editorial Director at iPhone Life, Sarah Kingsbury manages the online editorial team and oversees all website content. She is a long-time Apple enthusiast who never goes anywhere without her Apple Watch and owns way too many HomePods. Since joining iPhone Life in 2013, Sarah has done everything from writing hundreds of how-to articles to founding the Daily Tip newsletter. She even co-hosted the early episodes of the iPhone Life Podcast. When not at work, Sarah can be found hiking in the mountains and canyons around Las Vegas, where she lives with her partner and dogs.