Can't type on newer iPhones

[LionTeeth]

OP I’m 100% with you. Both me and my wife get so annoyed with the keyboards on our phones. I have a 15 pro. I think it’s software related. Some update like 6-8 months ago ruined it and it’s just typo after typo. I type out a sentence and it’s just constant blue underlined that get auto corrected. It’s brutal

Windows phones had the best keyboards ever. I can pull out my old Lumia and can still, after like a decade, type 10 times easier on that than I can on this.

 

[I7guy]

I'm sort of with the op. I think there are multiple keyboards and some of them are difficult to type on. Some of them, or one of them are easier to type on. (more mistakes vs less mistakes) I've gotten used to it and I type slower as needed.

 

[wave84]

I also noticed this. I had a lot of iPhones starting with gen. 1. Typing even on iPhone 1 was much much much better, I could text incredibly fast without making any mistakes. At one point it seems to have gotten worse, and now on my iPhone 15 pro I am making mistakes all the time. I never used auto correction or any other feature, just plain typing. There's something with the finger detection algorithm that is off now. Or the size of the phone, maybe a smaller keyboard was somehow better, I don't know.

 

[ShawtyisFreakQV]

I also noticed this. I had a lot of iPhones starting with gen. 1. Typing even on iPhone 1 was much much much better, I could text incredibly fast without making any mistakes. At one point it seems to have gotten worse, and now on my iPhone 15 pro I am making mistakes all the time. I never used auto correction or any other feature, just plain typing. There's something with the finger detection algorithm that is off now. Or the size of the phone, maybe a smaller keyboard was somehow better, I don't know.

Just exactly what I mean. Glad to read it

 

[Ctrlos]

Given the grammar in the OP from typing on an iMac, and I mean this with sincerity, are we sure the issue is not with the user here?

 

[amaze1499]

Typing has become a challenge for me in iOS18. I was thought T9 was bad.

 

[JonaM]

I think the observation about bezels and weight on later phones is spot on - I've definitely found typing is harder on the newer phones for me and it seems to be mostly around typing near the edge of the keyboard where you don't hit the letter spot on and it selects the wrong one.

 

[Mr_Ed]

It's one of those things that is hard to quantify because we type on these devices all the time, but I have to agree with the OP as well. The last phone I recall having a good experience (meaning I could just type away, make few typos, and have most of them corrected adequately) was the iPhone 6. Subjectively, it went down hill from there for me.

 

[MacCheetah3]

It’s because of the weight distribution. On the iPhone 8, which I agree is easier to type on, because of the giant bezel and comparative lightness and smaller size, the keyboard sits much higher than on modern phones. But modern phones are also much larger and heavier so you’re really stretching out your hand to try and prevent the phone from slipping out of your grip. Remember, iPhone 8 is basically smaller, lighter, and shorter, and yet the keyboard sits higher. The original iPhones and iPads all had giant bezels. This was not an accident.

This has been my primary assumption. For most of us, the literally bigger stretch causes our thumbs to contact the display/screen at a different angle now, more like 45-degrees or less rather than closer to 90-degrees. This could throw off where we believe our thumbs are (first) making contact versus where they actually are. Additionally, any ‘roll’ as you lift a thumb/finger — which you probably wouldn't even realize/notice — will further problematically change the final touch target.

There’s also the swipey keyboard that messes with everything. I have to turn that one off on each new phone.

I wonder when Apple added the swipe to type feature, consequently made tap to type far worse? I don’t use swipe to type.. anyone recall when that feature was added?

iOS 13 (i.e., iPhone 11)

How to use the iPhone's new Slide to Type keyboard feature in iOS 13

QuickPath is your iPhone's version of gesture typing, and it's pretty great.

www.cnet.com

This would align with the timeframe, iPhone models some are claiming.

 

[JM]

I started with 7 and have always had to treat any input field (keyboard, link, button, etc.) as placing my bit fat finger over it completely… Instead of a refined precise tap at the tip of my finger like a real keyboard would react to.

iOS has always seemed to predict what you’re trying to type by taking the average of your entire finger, instead of the tip of the finger.

It really does seem to take the actual first touch point and not the intended touch point that a real keyboard with dimension would register. (Which ends up being the big fat middle of the finger.)

So while it is accurate, it’s not intuitive.

 

[Bichon]

I read the earth is flat on Reddit... This sounds more like a personal problem. Maybe you should use voice dictation so you don't have to type..

It isn't. If it was, cats would have pushed everything off the edge by now.

 

[macdaddy43]

Insert the: “You’re holding it wrong” 😂

 

[Bungaree.Chubbins]

I really think it is bio-mechanical. That’s not to say it’s anyone’s fault, but on the iPhone 6 and earlier, I had to type with deliberate slowness so as to not hit adjacent keys and cut down my error rate. Going to the 8 Plus, then the 14, and typing became easier, and much faster, for me. So it’s easy for me to believe that people who could type comfortably on those small screens would have their typing action thrown off by the bigger screens.

Maybe, as several have already suggested, or alluded to, maybe Apple needs to update their algorithm for calculating the placement of the finger. Although that would probably make it much harder for me to type…

 

[Kettil]

I know this is diverging from the issue experienced, but I can't figure out why mostly people still type, when the swipe keyboard has become effortless to use (for me).

By the way, have you tried if the smaller, one handed keyboard types better than the standard one?

 

[Jakeznuff]

I can't typ on iPhones above 12. Typing this on iMac, because on my 14 Pro it couldn't be done.

Don't know how to describe but typing on 14Pro is just ****ed. Can't typ a normal sentence without mistakes. Autocorrect is on but has to correct just everything.

but then, I used my moms phone (12) and everything went smooth and not a single problem at all. Used an iPhone 8 to test. 10 times better. Held the phone next to each other, there is more space between letters it looks.

You should take an old iPhone and type on it, it's just unbelievable. I cant be the only one. Wanted to switch to Samsung just because of this.....

Just reset the dictionary in your keyboard settings. I had a similar issue where autocorrect kept messing up my text.

 

[ilpap]

Just reset the dictionary in your keyboard settings. I had a similar issue where autocorrect kept messing up my text.

I am trying this. I have had issues with typing for a few years now, it just was not that accurate (same typing speed just more typos, or hitting the wrong letter).

 

[knuta]

why type when you can use swype instead and not have to lift a finger

 

[wave84]

why type when you can use swype instead and not have to lift a finger

For me, as a computer kid, it feels more comfortable to type with both hands (thumbs) rather than swipe with one thumb all over the keyboard, it feels more tiring to me that way.

 

[Mr_Ed]

I really think it is bio-mechanical. That’s not to say it’s anyone’s fault, but on the iPhone 6 and earlier, I had to type with deliberate slowness so as to not hit adjacent keys and cut down my error rate. Going to the 8 Plus, then the 14, and typing became easier, and much faster, for me. So it’s easy for me to believe that people who could type comfortably on those small screens would have their typing action thrown off by the bigger screens.

Maybe, as several have already suggested, or alluded to, maybe Apple needs to update their algorithm for calculating the placement of the finger. Although that would probably make it much harder for me to type…

There may indeed be something to this for some people, but my own experience was the opposite.

With the earlier, smaller iPhones I used to type much faster, and could see on the screen the phone correcting a flubbed spelling now and then, but I rarely stopped to correct anything. On latter models my typing resulted in much more frequent mistypes (wrong letter getting chosen under my finger) and as the auto-correct got more “sophisticated” the error rate for corrections chosen by the phone (correction is not what I wanted) went up. It was a more fluid experience than it is now.

Also note that I had no sense of how “small” the phone was in earlier models because there was nothing to compare it to. We now say an iPhone 4 is “smaller” only because newer phones are larger. I simply typed as fast as I could without any concern about hitting the wrong key. I can’t seem to do that anymore.

 

[foggygray]

I have found typing on the iPhone annoying for the last few versions of iOS and it must be since iOS 13 or so. When they added swipe maybe?

I never thought to turn all that and predictive text off so I’ll try that and see if it helps for me.

 

[Mad4clay]

I can't typ on iPhones above 12. Typing this on iMac, because on my 14 Pro it couldn't be done.

Don't know how to describe but typing on 14Pro is just ****ed. Can't typ a normal sentence without mistakes. Autocorrect is on but has to correct just everything.

but then, I used my moms phone (12) and everything went smooth and not a single problem at all. Used an iPhone 8 to test. 10 times better. Held the phone next to each other, there is more space between letters it looks.

You should take an old iPhone and type on it, it's just unbelievable. I cant be the only one. Wanted to switch to Samsung just because of this.....

I'm having the same issue with my new phone. I type something and the letter or number doesn't show up and I have to go back to type the missing digit. It's very frustrating to say the least. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one.

 

[dmr727]

I've noticed that I'm a lot worse now than I used to be, but I always figured it was a function of me getting older. My big issue is the keyboard for inputting a URL - I'm always accidentally hitting the period to the right of the spacebar.

 

[Bungaree.Chubbins]

There may indeed be something to this for some people, but my own experience was the opposite.

With the earlier, smaller iPhones I used to type much faster, and could see on the screen the phone correcting a flubbed spelling now and then, but I rarely stopped to correct anything. On latter models my typing resulted in much more frequent mistypes (wrong letter getting chosen under my finger) and as the auto-correct got more “sophisticated” the error rate for corrections chosen by the phone (correction is not what I wanted) went up. It was a more fluid experience than it is now.

Also note that I had no sense of how “small” the phone was in earlier models because there was nothing to compare it to. We now say an iPhone 4 is “smaller” only because newer phones are larger. I simply typed as fast as I could without any concern about hitting the wrong key. I can’t seem to do that anymore.

I still suspect biomechanics are a part of it, but if I recall, Apple changed how autocorrect works a few years ago. I've not noticed much difference, but that could be the other half of the problem.

Well, no, I didn't consider my 3GS, 4, or 5 to be small. I thought my 8 Plus was too big, and have finally gotten used to the size now, with my 14, but that's all beside the point. You're lucky you were able to just type quickly on those older iPhones. I had to type slowly and deliberately, to make sure I'd get the right button, or even autocorrect couldn't figure out what I was trying to type. Now I can just type.

I'm not trying to say that anyone's experience or view is wrong, I'm just adding my own perspective to add to the bigger picture. Whatever the problem is here, it's nuanced, and not a simple 'Apple Bad' problem.

I've noticed that I'm a lot worse now than I used to be, but I always figured it was a function of me getting older. My big issue is the keyboard for inputting a URL - I'm always accidentally hitting the period to the right of the spacebar.

Now, that is one that does occasionally annoy me. From time to time, I accidentally hit the full stop instead of the space bar. I've always put it down to my inaccurate typing.

 

[Sippincider]

I think it’s software related.

Same here. My typing leaves much to be desired, but something is definitely "off" with the iOS 18 keyboard.

And then there's the auto-correct and suggestions. At one time they were reasonably good; now they're both so out to lunch it'd be easier to turn them off and live with the typos.

 

[Mr_Ed]

I still suspect biomechanics are a part of it, but if I recall, Apple changed how autocorrect works a few years ago. I've not noticed much difference, but that could be the other half of the problem.

Well, no, I didn't consider my 3GS, 4, or 5 to be small. I thought my 8 Plus was too big, and have finally gotten used to the size now, with my 14, but that's all beside the point. You're lucky you were able to just type quickly on those older iPhones. I had to type slowly and deliberately, to make sure I'd get the right button, or even autocorrect couldn't figure out what I was trying to type. Now I can just type.

I'm not trying to say that anyone's experience or view is wrong, I'm just adding my own perspective to add to the bigger picture. Whatever the problem is here, it's nuanced, and not a simple 'Apple Bad' problem.



Now, that is one that does occasionally annoy me. From time to time, I accidentally hit the full stop instead of the space bar. I've always put it down to my inaccurate typing.

Yeah, same here. Not discounting anyone else's take, just relating my own.

For me something feels different about the "registration" (not sure it's the right term) of the finger tap that ends up being inaccurate way more often than it did in older phones and OS versions. That is puzzling to me because I have always assumed (maybe not a good assumption, never tried to verify) the larger screens on newer phones meant each key on the keyboard might have a slightly larger area associated with it. Combined with my perceived decline in the accuracy of the corrections applied when each of those "mis-types" happens just makes the whole thing far from the fluid experience I used to have.