You know by now that a good percentage of the rest of your adult life will be spent staring at a phone screen and tapping on a tiny keyboard. Therefore, it's worth personalizing your phone's settings to make your finger-tapping a little more painless and streamlined.
Enter the speedy world of keyboard shortcuts. Whipping up some auto-type recipes can help reduce the amount of time you spend retyping the same text. Here are a few tips for both the iPhone and Android to help you chop down your texting time, and maybe, just maybe, keep you from staring at your phone so much. Hope springs eternal, no?
Go to Settings > General > Keyboard and make sure that all the immediate options are set to your liking. If your personality is more lowercase, turn off auto-capitalization. If you're typing your exegesis, try turning on the feature that inserts a period and starts a new sentence with each double space.
Here's how to make your iPhone keyboard shortcuts:
• Tap Settings > General > Keyboard > Shortcuts
• Click on the plus sign (+) in the top right hand corner. You'll see blanks for Phrase and Shortcut.
• In the Phrase section, insert the longer phrase you want to show up quickly.
• In the Shortcut bar, type the letter combination that you want to expand to your phase.
The keyboard shortcuts are suggested above the word and accepted by pressing space. If you're trying to type something else, just keep typing.
Some other quick iPhone texting tips:
• Highlight the word you want to define and click "Define" to instantly increase your intelligence.
• When switching to numeric mode, keep your finger pressed on the Number or Symbol button and slide it over to the key you want to press. Then let go to return to your letters screen.
• Change between open apps by double clicking on the Home button and swiping left or right to find the app you want.
Enable keyboard shortcuts on your Android device by going to Settings > Language & Keyboard. Android doesn't have as many personalization options as Apple does, but unlike iOS it is compatible with Google Keyboard (which is worth downloading).
Here's how to create custom keyboard shortcuts on your Android device:
• Visit Settings > Language & Keyboard > Input > Personal dictionary
• Click on the plus (+) sign in the upper right corner.
• In the New Word or Phrase bar, type the phrase that you want to have appear when you enter your shortcut.
• For the Shortcut blank section, fill in the letter combination that you'd type instead of the full phrase.
Now go to any texting or email application and type your shortcut. The full phrase should appear in the autocorrect options along with suggested words.
More quick Android typing tips worth trying:
• Hold any letter down to give options of that letter with accents or of the secondary symbol or number that corresponds to that key. For example, you don't need to go to the Symbols and Numbers keyboard to type a dollar sign, just hold down F.
• Double tap the spacebar to add a period.
• Since each Android phone is made by a different manufacturer, each is going to vary slightly, so research online to see what others with your particular model suggest.
The thing to remember with keyboard shortcuts is that they have the potential to turn you into a robot. So when you're scripting your shortcuts, it'sgood to think about ways your personality can come through.
Some ideas that you might find inspiring:
EML > Your email
ADR > Your address
NMB > Your phone number
LTR > Can't talk now, will call later.
MTG > In a meeting.
TRN > Just got off train.
5MIN > Be there in 5.
DPE > That would be dope.
Now you can go forth and text like the baller you are. But remember, just because you can text like the wind, it doesn't mean you should respond as quickly as possible. You don't want to look too thirsty.
