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Show HN: A 2-row, 16-key keyboard designed for smartphones
Mobile keyboards today are almost entirely based on the 26-key, 3-row QWERTY layout.
Here’s a new 2-row, 16-key alternative designed specifically for smartphones.
- teach 9mo agoYou might want to throw a CDN in front of this -- the site is realllllly struggling and seems very complex under the hood. Cool idea though.
- mgr86 9mo agoI threw it at archive.is for them. https://archive.is/gW1rO https://archive.is/gW1rO
- QWERTYmini 9mo agoThanks for archiving it ^^ really appreciate the help!
- QWERTYmini 9mo agoThanks for letting me know! The website isn’t optimized yet, so it’s running slower than usual. I’ll work on improving it soon. Really appreciate your interest!
- Semaphor 9mo agoDo people often thumb letters instead of swiping? And why? Coding or other stuff where you don't have natural language? For her swiping (or glide typing) is the only thing making mobile phones somewhat usable, but I also encounter people who haven't even heard of that feature.
- procinct 9mo agoI usually just type with two thumbs and can type pretty quickly. Swiping always felt a bit awkward to me because my phone is too large to use one handed with one thumb swiping, and swiping with a finger felt awkward compared to just holding my phone in both hands and typing with both thumbs. I imagine if you look at how most young people use their phone, it will mostly be the two thumb method and they will likely be very quick with it.
- Semaphor 9mo agoHm. Hadn't thought about size. I always make sure to get a phone that I can use one-handed, but I guess big phones are far more popular.
- Gys 9mo agoi tried it and think it needs at least three improvements for me to use it: normally a sentence starts automatically with a capital but not with this keyboard double space should result in a dot and a space, to end a sentence. Now I need to switch layout for a dot automatic suggestions are not enabled (or implemented)
- gxonatano 9mo agoIt strikes me as a little unimaginative to want to improve on smartphone software keyboards but (1) stick with QWERTY, a layout designed to be inefficient, and (2) require multiple taps to enter some letters. It seems like you've invented a way to make smartphone typing even more of a pain than it already is.
- patrulek 9mo agoNot usable for me because im using "snake/slide typing".
- MontyCarloHall 9mo agoSmartphone keyboards dynamically adjust the "hitbox" of each key based on what's previously been typed and overall letter frequencies of the language. So when typing "Paris is the capital of Fr..." [*], the A key becomes much easier to hit than its neighbors. Fun fact: back in the day, when this tech was less refined, certain letter contexts made the hitboxes of some keys effectively nonexistent [0]. I wonder if an approach like KKeyboard with larger but statically combined keys leads to faster typing than the current approach with smaller but dynamically "combined" keys. [*] In reality, the context is modeled using a simple Hidden Markov Model with a much smaller effective context window that could not associate "Paris" and "France." But you get the idea. [0] https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/impossible-to-type-okee-or-oket-on-iphone.664456/ https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/impossible-to-type-okee...
- xattt 9mo agoInteresting to note is how much typing accuracy decreases if you enable dual-language single-keyboard typing (e.g. Eng + Fr) on an iPhone, since targets end up having to account for two separate dictionaries.
- happymellon 9mo agoUnfortunately thats not correct. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hksVvXONrIo https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hksVvXONrIo
- QWERTYmini 9mo agoI’m not sure if this fully answers the question, but so far increasing the key size alone has worked well, with no noticeable hitbox issues.
- quamserena 9mo agoOmg I thought this was just me. How do I turn this off? On iOS, this has been bugging me for a long time.
- devmor 9mo agoI would love a way to turn it off as well, this is the source of the majority of my annoying typos.
- yjftsjthsd-h 9mo agoI'm not following. * Does this still expect you to hit every key but some of them need multiple taps? * Are they doing fancy autocorrect-like magic to decide which letter you meant, and if so why use this instead of taking it one more step and using http://minuum.com/ http://minuum.com/ ? * Or is it something else?
- QWERTYmini 9mo agoYes, all characters are entered with tap or double-tap, and it also supports simultaneous taps as an advanced option. It’s fully local, with no autocorrect or prediction. Minuum compresses QWERTY into one row, but QWERTY mini keeps the QWERTY structure to preserve the familiar typing experience. Thanks for your interest!
- yjftsjthsd-h 9mo agoSo like, to type "x" a person would hit the dx key twice? I guess that's better for precise typing, but for normal prose it's probably faster+easier to just type blindly and let the machine figure out what you mean.
- QWERTYmini 9mo agoBoth with- and without-autocorrect have their pros and cons. This layout could also work well if predictive features are added later.
- morsch 9mo agoI mean for one thing Minuum is dead, the play store link is 404 and the last time I tried it it didn't work perfectly with recent Android versions. Which is sad because it was great when it was still maintained.
- nullpilot 9mo agoI believe Minuum is the only app I ever paid for on the Play Store, after having followed it since the Kickstarter campaign. It was the only option that made typing on a small touchscreen feel mostly frictionless for me, contrary to the varying degrees of frustration of other options. As a result, I now hardly type on my phone.
- highwind 9mo agoI like it but I wish I can change the size of the keyboard. Buttons are too small on my phone.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- ugh123 9mo agoSeems like there's 25% wasted space at the bottom for the language globe icon that could be used for something useful
- QWERTYmini 9mo agoGood point. I’m not sure why Apple designed it that way either. Anyway, the globe icon area is required by the OS, so its size can’t be reduced. Thanks for the feedback!
- 2earth 9mo agoNice idea, I might try it! I noticed "copyright info goes here (c) 2025" - which you might want to update!
- toast0 9mo ago> I noticed "copyright info goes here (c) 2025" - which you might want to update! It's still 2025, so that's fine :P post-Berne Convention, there are no forms required for copyright protection to vest, merely fixing the work upon a medium is sufficient.
- Xiol 9mo agoSo vibe coded slop that clearly hasn't been reviewed is going to have access to all my input. Interesting idea, but that's a pass from me.
- schainks 9mo agoReminds me of the abominable parking ticket machine keyboards in Rome (https://www.wantedinrome.com/i/cover/storage/uploads/2018/12/rome-bus-tickets-parking-meters.jpg.webp https://www.wantedinrome.com/i/cover/storage/uploads/2018/12...)
- stevage 9mo agoI don't really understand how people manage to type with two thumbs while holding their phone securely. I use my left thumb and my right index finger, with my right thumb supporting the base of the phone.
- wffurr 9mo agoI use my left pinky to hold the base of the phone. Lots of people with bigger phones use one of those stick on things on the back and hold it with their index and middle finger.
- rtkwe 9mo ago+1 for the pinky phone shelf. Worked better when phones were smaller and lighter now I have a popsocket on the back and hold it either between the middle and index or middle and ring depending on what I'm doing. Sometimes with middle and index the pinky comes out again to stabilize the phone too.
- AAAAaccountAAAA 9mo agoLooks nice. Reminds me of MessagEase[1] and clones, such as ThumbKey[2]. I use the latter for my mobile text input needs. However, that method is sometimes prone to typos, since one key may have up to 9 different characters assigned to it, and it is easy to swipe slightly wrong way. QWERTYmini could be better in that aspect, since there are only 2 characters per key. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MessagEase https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MessagEase 2. https://github.com/dessalines/thumb-key https://github.com/dessalines/thumb-key
- pshirshov 9mo agoAlso this: https://codeberg.org/natkr/flickboard https://codeberg.org/natkr/flickboard
- mmh0000 9mo agoI really dislike how iOS handles dictation as a keyboard feature. I want to try this keyboard, but I also don't want to give up dictation. If I have to switch back to the iOS keyboard to enable dictation, that's just enough friction that I'm not going to move to something else.
- tomtomistaken 9mo agoLooks nice. Can I swipe write with it?
- chente 9mo agoReminds of T9 texting and I did like T9. I'll have to try this.
- axiolite 9mo agoI call BS. NOBODY ever LIKED to type on T9. Maybe you well-tolerated it. Maybe you got reasonably good at it. But not LIKED. There's a reason text messaging really took over when smartphones came in... because T9 was no longer needed. It was objectively awful.
- chente 9mo agoMy brother is Christ, call BS all you WANT. This is T9-esque and we have comments in here being interested in going away from full keyboards on their phones in favor of cramming multiple letters onto buttons and letting the software do it again. Time is a flat circle and all that.
- jefurii 9mo agoMy old Sony Ericsson T616 was inferior to my smartphone in so many ways, but I could tap out SMS messages on that keypad without having to look at it. It was handy to be able to take notes on long drives.
- postoplust 9mo agoSite seems down, try https://archive.is/gW1rO https://archive.is/gW1rO
- rcarmo 9mo agoHmmm. Cute. I use a Bluehand (https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2023/08/08/1230 https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2023/08/08/1230), which is physical and has... half the keys, but that relies on chording. I might take a look at the idea of doing a 20-key physical keyboard that looks like this.
- thebeardisred 9mo agoI noticed "International patent (PCT/KR2025/099177), International Publication " Are you truly seeking a software patent for this? If so what is the plan for leveraging ownership over the patent?
- QWERTYmini 9mo agoGood question. I’m not entirely sure about its value yet. It was done to continue development without legal uncertainty, and it’s mainly a defensive measure.
- davtbaum 9mo agoJust tried it out, how do you accelerate disambiguating a double key 'nn' in 'dinner' vs alternate? This doesn't feel very usable compared to the existing keyboard to me
- Krastan 9mo agoWere you inspired by thumb key at all? https://github.com/dessalines/thumb-key https://github.com/dessalines/thumb-key