Will Windows Phone 8.1 bring T9 keyboard option?

[luisfarelo]

Please reply, I can't find anything on this. Very important for me.
Thanks!

 

[brunoadduarte]

You're not alone on that, but probably not.

 

[palandri]

I really doubt it. Text on 9 keys was popular in the 90's but has really lost steam with the newer phones and keyboards.

 

[gwinegarden]

I cannot imagine why anyone would want T9, now.

 

[brunoadduarte]

Simple... I like to type using just one hand. A 3x4 keyboard would certainly help with that. This is actually a feature that makes me look at Android sometimes.

 

[N_LaRUE]

Lots of people want the T9 keyboard because they want to text while driving... (something illegal in many countries but people still do it)

I don't see this option coming but then I'm not entirely sure we saw everything yesterday. Maybe they'll allow custom keyboards.

You'll be able to use Cortana so why the need anyway? Just dictate and send.

 

[brunoadduarte]

I don't want to text while driving. I hate doing that. What I want is to text with one hand while I'm walking or just at home as having to text with both hands distracts me too much and I end up making a lot of typos or bumping into everything and everyone or even making me completely lose focus of what I was doing before writing the text. It's just all around more practical for me. With all the gimmicky options they're giving to people that don't have any real usefulness apart from looking good 20% of the time (I'm looking at you tile backgrounds), I'd expect them to introduce more things with real utility.

Not only that, but Cortana is a feature that won't be available in Portugal any time soon and if it is it will likely be in Brazilian-Portuguese, much like the voice controls are now. And that is a dialect most of us hate. Still, Siri, Cortana and the likes are things that don't appeal to me because talking to my phone like it's a person is not something I look forward to.

 

[N_LaRUE]

I don't want to text while driving. I hate doing that. What I want is to text with one hand while I'm walking or just at home as having to text with both hands distracts me too much and I end up making a lot of typos or bumping into everything and everyone or even making me completely lose focus of what I was doing before writing the text. It's just all around more practical for me. With all the gimmicky options they're giving to people that don't have any real usefulness apart from looking good 20% of the time (I'm looking at you tile backgrounds), I'd expect them to introduce more things with real utility.

Not only that, but Cortana is a feature that won't be available in Portugal any time soon and if it is it will likely be in Brazilian-Portuguese, much like the voice controls are now. And that is a dialect most of us hate. Still, Siri, Cortana and the likes are things that don't appeal to me because talking to my phone like it's a person is not something I look forward to.

I wasn't saying you specifically with regards to driving. The last time this topic came up some people stated that was one of the appeals of it.

Maybe they'll allow custom keyboards? Who knows? I used swype when I had a N8 and I loved it so I'm happy to see something similar on WP now. Took them a while...

I totally agree that nothing has really impressed me much with WP8.1 so far. I'm wondering if we saw everything yesterday. I won't use Cortana (not that I can anyway) either at all or very little, the swipe keyboard is nice to have. Notifications? Meh. Background on tiles? Meh. The rest that was shown... whatever?

 

[brunoadduarte]

I'm not holding my breath but still... It would be nice to have. With so many people going on and on about options, this would be a real option, with real usefulness and yet, no dice.

The only feature I ended up expecting eagerly from 8.1 is the notification centre, as I don't like to clutter my Start Screen with apps I don't use much, but still need. This way I can have them on the app list and still know if I have anything new. The rest I've seen is just like you say... meh...

 

[luisfarelo]

Updated to 8.1 and disappointed they didn't add the T9 option. Oh well...

 

[L Kapoor]

You could use word-flow/swype. It would be better than T9.

 

[luisfarelo]

You could use word-flow/swype. It would be better than T9.

I could but no wordflow keyboard for Portuguese (Portugal)... Also with T9 with my previous Sony xperia I was able to write on one hand without even looking at the screen

 

[L Kapoor]

Okay. In India, we mostly use English alphabets even for hindi words so I assumed it would be available for all languages. You could go to Feature Suggestions: Hot (50340 ideas) – Feature Suggestions for Windows Phone and add this there.

 

[Xellsama]

My experience is that T9 is there, and has been there since 8.0 days but not for all the languages. My gf types blazing fast on T9 for Chinese input.