With the release of iOS 8, Apple finally allowed users to install third-party keyboards on their devices, and because of that we’ve seen the likes of Swype, SwiftKey, and Fleksy make their way into the iTunes App Store. Now for those of you who grew up around smartphones and are familiar with the QWERTY keyboard layout, you might not know that back in the day, we didn’t have such luxuries.
In order to compose a message, we’d have to type on a number pad which were referred to as T9 keyboards back in the day. Basically to spell a certain letter, you’d have to press the corresponding number in order to arrive at it. Well if you’re looking to relive some nostalgia and perhaps see if typing with a T9 keyboard is faster, you might be interested in the Type Nine keyboard for iOS.
As you can see in the image above, the Type Nine keyboard will replace your QWERTY keyboard with a number pad like in the good old days. It will include predictive text functionality, so don’t worry about having to type out every single word. In fact as you can see in the screenshot above, there is a small tutorial that will get users acquainted with the keyboard which will be handy for those who have never used such a keyboard before.
The Type Nine keyboard is currently available via the iTunes App Store for $0.99, so if you’d like to check it out (it actually looks pretty decent), head on over for the download!