This Secret Smartphone Feature Makes Texting Easier and Faster

If you’re constantly texting on your phone, you might be running into the same phrases over and over again. And, if you’re like a lot of people around you, you might also be the type of person who actually writes out your most commonly used sentences every single time.

Sending texts like “I love you,” or “on my way home,” or the slightly more terse, “are you here yet?” can actually waste you many precious seconds throughout the day. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

According to Time, your smartphone has some built in functions to make your texting style much zippier.

Text shortcuts allow you to type short keywords for your most commonly used texts, which then fill in your complete phrase when you hit space. So, for example, simply write the keyword “omwh,” hit space, then the phrase “on my way home” will magically appear on your text screen, ready to send.

Your shortcuts can be as simple or as complicated as you like.

Here’s how to set up text shortcuts

On an iPhone or iPad, visit Settings, then click General, then Keyboard, then Text Replacement. There, you’ll see where you can add your shortcuts by clicking the “+”on the right-hand top corner of the screen. There, you will see a box for your phrase (in which you’ll write your whole phrase or sentence), and a box for your shortcut (in which you’ll write your shortcut). You can even delete old shortcuts by clicking Edit on the bottom left-hand corner.

On the Mac, click on System Preferences from the Apple drop-down in the top left corner. Then, click Keyboard, then Text. There, you can follow the same procedures by clicking the “+” on the screen. For PC users, unfortunately, Windows 10 does not have this feature, according to Time.

But for Android users, click System, then Languages & Input, then Advanced, then Personal Dictionary. You will see a list of shortcuts you can use.

Time also recommends some text shortcut apps that can help you keep connected faster than ever before, like TextExpander, aText, Texpand, WordExpander, Breevy and Phrase Expander.

Get ready for happier (and faster) texting.