There’s A Better Way To Type On Tvs, And It’s Based On Old-school Phones

Typing connected a TV sucks. Those agelong and / aliases scrambled on-screen keyboards are immoderate a nuisance to use, and a existent problem for anyone wanting to make worldly for your TV.

At CES 2025, I was conscionable introduced to a amended way. It’s made by a institution called Direction9, which has been moving connected nan strategy for astir a year, and it starts pinch a very aged measurement of typing: T9. T9 was created by necessity, backmost successful nan days erstwhile cellphones’ only buttons were nan number keys. (Here’s a demo for nan uninitiated.) TVs are likewise constrained by their directional pad — connected astir set-top boxes and smart TVs there’s nary different measurement to type.

The Direction9 strategy useful for illustration this: each nan letters are arrayed successful a three-by-three number grid, pinch aggregate letters assigned to each number, conscionable for illustration T9. When you unfastened nan keyboard, your cursor defaults to nan middle, and you click astir to nan missive you’re looking for. Every clip you click nan mediate fastener to premier a letter, nan cursor jumps backmost to nan center, which intends you’re ever only a click aliases 2 from nan missive you’re looking for.

You tin usage nan keyboard a “smart” mode, which tries to foretell which relationship you’re looking for — click nan “abc” button, past nan “def” button, and past “def” fastener again, and it mightiness conjecture you were typing “bed.” You tin too move it disconnected and type overmuch manually: erstwhile you click connected “abc,” it pops up a caller array that lets you premier betwixt letters.

The remainder of nan keys you’d petition — Enter, Space, Back, and truthful distant — are arrayed astir nan sides of this grid. Direction9’s instrumentality coming is that you don’t really personification to spot participate to premier them; conscionable click-click complete to nan Enter fastener and it automatically submits.

Direction9 CEO Leon Chang really exhibited an early type of this keyboard astatine past year’s CES. But he tells maine Direction9 is now successful talks pinch companies to get its keyboard into streaming apps and connected smart TVs; for nan moment, though, it’s still axenic vaporware.

The afloat process sounds somewhat complicated, but I picked it up successful 30 seconds opinionated astatine Direction9’s booth astatine CES Unveiled. Chang said information of nan software’s entreaty is that you tin yet study to do it without moreover looking, and aft a infinitesimal aliases 2 I was tin to do conscionable that. The smart prediction package seemed to struggle pinch overmuch analyzable words for illustration “Shogun,” but successful wide seemed to grok what I was looking for. It’s not a cleanable system, and it surely has a learning curve that your mean on-screen connection of letters doesn’t, but it’s nan fastest I’ve ever typed connected a TV. That has to count for something.