Time and a word

[j4]

Does anybody know whether there exists a way of timing the writing/sending of a text message? Ideally it'd be some kind of stopwatch that you could set with a keypress and unset once you'd finished (so in fact you'd be able to use it to time other things on your phone as well, but call timing is already built-in for most phones and I'm not sure what else would be useful). Basically I'm interested to know how long it takes people to write and send (without using a template) short messages like "Yes", "No", "Thanks", and "Busy, will reply later". Obviously everybody's typing speed differs, so I guess I'd want to collect data from as many people as possible to get an average speed.

Comments

[martling.livejournal.com]

For most older phones this is effectively impossible.

On Symbian (http://www.symbian.com) based phones (including for example the more advanced Nokias - 7650 etc - and SonyEricsson P800/900) there is an API to access the SMS features so it would be possible to write an alternative SMS application with this feature, or a general timing app (in fact, the latter probably already exists).

On PalmOS based devices (basically just the Treos) the situation is probably similar.

Less advanced stuff like the Nokia 6310i and others from the last 18 months or so will run small Java apps, but the timing would be ruined by the sheer time it takes to load & faff with them.

[j4.livejournal.com]

Ah. Thank you! The timing thing is impossible on my phone, then, but possible if I do ever get round to getting the P800 (which is what I'm currently lusting after).

The Treo has a keyboard, though, rather than the grouped-letters number-keys setup that ordinary phones have; any timing data would have to take alternative input mechanisms into account.

[martling.livejournal.com]

Do I get to find out why you're interested?

There are probably figures on this already, somewhere in the bowels of the manufacturers' usability research groups.

[j4.livejournal.com]

Do I get to find out why you're interested?

Just idle curiosity, really.

There are probably figures on this already, somewhere in the bowels of the manufacturers' usability research groups.

I guess there probably are... I will go and hunt around.

[juliet]

I gather you should be lusting after the P900 instead. Several of the bugs/irritants in the P800 have been got rid of, and it's a nicer colour :-) I *want* one (though I do like my Treo).

Entirely based on how-things-feel, I think the Treo keyboard is *slightly* faster than T9, & quite a lot faster than non-T9. But I happily admit that this is a completely unscientific comment :-)