How to Make Typing On Your iPhone Way Easier

Even though the iPhone was designed with convenience in mind, there can still be something counterintuitive about its default keyboard. Occasionally, autocorrect errors or errant typing will result in sending “I love moo” in a text when we didn’t really mean to confess our appreciation for anything bovine.

While iOS 8 packs a pretty good predictive text function that allows you to select from oft-used words via a bar over the keyboard, there are some great third party apps that can help facilitate texting and typing away on your iPhone.

One of the most popular third-party keyboards is Swype, which costs $0.99 in the App Store and can dramatically increase your texting speed and accuracy by letting you drag your finger from one letter to the next.

To use Swype after you’ve downloaded it, you must enable it as an alternate keyboard by entering Settings, going to General, then heading to Keyboard. Select “Add New Keyboard,” and you’ll be presented from a list, one of which is Swype. With that done, next time you’re typing something on your iPhone, hold down the globe icon on the bottom-left of your keyboard and select Swype.

Another extremely popular third party keyboard app is Swiftkey, which can be downloaded in the App Store for free and enabled the same way as Swype. Swiftkey has two great functions: First, as you type, it offers an incredibly accurate predictive text algorithm, allowing you to choose from several words to complete your missives. Swiftkey also offers typing-by-swiping much like Swype does.