• eric@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I didn’t meant to imply T9 was not used for texting, but it was never adopted to the point of being the preferred way of communication for the majority of people because it was very slow. It really didn’t take off with any single demographic until most teens got cell phones, which wasn’t until the 00s, and even then, those that did use T9 would abbreviate most words because it was so incredibly slow to type out every character. For most, unless you had to say something small or were out of minutes, you’d always prefer calling someone over texting.

    Mobile QWERTY keyboards and later voice to text were what made sms overtake calling as the preferred method of comms for the majority of people.

    • legion02@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Having grown up editing this time I disagree. My friends and I all texted on Nokias or motorola flip phones with T9 input. Qwerty phones didn’t come out till much later.

      • eric@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’m not saying people didn’t text with T9. People texted. But most of the people that did use T9 didn’t start using it until the 00s because most people didn’t have cell phones in the late 90s. I’m saying this as someone who texted with T9 and QWERTY in 1999.

        And I’m also saying texting didn’t become the preferred method for nearly everyone until the smartphone era, because for many people that had cell phones before QWERTY keyboards despised texting.

        You’re combining those two points and are wrongly concluding that I’m saying no one texted on T9.

      • Wayren@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Can confirm similar experience. I sent many texts from my Nokia 5165. T9 4evr!