Horizontal keyboard for iPhone Mail. Sorta.

by Milind Alvares
Saturday October 11, 2008

Horizontal keyboard for iPhone Mail. Sorta.

by Milind Alvares on October 11, 2008

It is very puzzling as to why Apple allows the horizontal keyboard only in Safari. After all, most of the typing is done in Mail and Notes. At least it would be if it weren’t for that thin profile vertical keyboard. Whether this feature will ever be dolled out to in future versions of the iPhone software is yet to be known, but for now, we have two third party applications that allow you to compose and reply to emails using the horizontal keyboard.

iphone horizontal keyboard with touchtype and sideways app store
(The side vertically stacked buttons are of Sideways, and the horizontal bar on top is of TouchType)

TouchType for iPhone [iTunes link] is a simple $0.99 application that serves a simple purpose of composing emails in horizontal mode. After you are done, just hit the send to Mail button and you are on your way. If you want to reply to an email, hit the Reply button in Mail, then go to TouchType, compose your email and hit sent to Mail. Sideways [iTunes link], a $1.99 application does pretty much the same thing, but seems to have made a little better use of the available vertical space.

If you are a heavy user of email on the iPhone, either of these applications are worth purchasing for the price they command. It would be folly to sit around waiting for Apple to implement this by default.

Tagged as: app store, iPhone, sideways, touchtype

Reader Comments

Greg October 11, 2008 at 2:47 am

I know many have asked for this functionality, and I hope Apple implements it. But the funny thing is, I really don’t get it. I have large hands, but I still find that I prefer the vertical/narrow keyboard over the wider version. maybe I am just used to the narrow one in Mail, but I do a done of keyboarding on my iPhone and when I am in Safari, I have tried it both ways, and still prefer the vertical orientation. But as I said, I hope Apple implements it, so that we all have our choice.

Milind Alvares October 11, 2008 at 3:00 am goobimama.blogspot.com

You are right indeed. I too generally use the vertical keyboard, even in Safari as makes better use of available screen space. But in typing tests I have found that I can go much faster with the wider keyboard, hence I would use the wider keyboard when typing long emails. In any case, they already have the functionality, just need to enable it.

Zany January 24, 2009 at 4:36 am b00n.org

I don’t really like the horizontal keyboard. I always use the vertical in any app. I’m just faster with that. That’s maybe because I have pretty small hands that won’t allow me to get to the middle of the keyboard while I’m writing. In the beginning I made a lot of typo’s but I got used to it and I promise that if you practise, you will never use the horizontal again, because the keys are much closer to each other you don’t have to move your thumbs so far.

Zany January 24, 2009 at 4:36 am b00n.org

Milind Alvares January 24, 2009 at 4:39 am goobimama.blogspot.com

I Agree with you there. There’s too much for the eye to cover in the horizontal keyboard. Even in Safari now I only use the vertical.

Adam a February 21, 2009 at 9:59 am

Just to give a differing opinion, I’m typing his with the horizontal keyboard and i’m so much faster (I use both thumbs, like a sidekick) that safari can’t acually keep up with me most of the time.
… Way better IMHO.

Caelan May 6, 2009 at 4:13 am

Could someone make an app like this for texts or is there one?

Jerry June 2, 2009 at 2:39 am

AGREED. HORIZONTAL IS MUCH BETTER AND A MORE NATURAL FIT. ITS A MAJOR OVERSITE BY APPLE NOT HAVING THIS PRESENT ON THE PHONE. IF THEY WANT TO SURVIVE WITH THE GROWING COMPETITION NOW INCLUDING PALM AND RIM, SOMETHING AS BASIC AS HORIZONTAL TYPE AS WELL AS COPY AND PASTE NEED TO BE IMPLEMENTED BEFORE THE THE BELLS AND WHISTLES FEATURES. START BASIC AND THEN MOVE TO THE MORE ADVANCED.

Milind Alvares June 2, 2009 at 5:37 pm soggysh.it: I hope you’ve heard about the iPhone 3.0 OS set to release in June/July. Addresses all of that and more.