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 / oregon scrambled on-screen keyboards are some a nuisance to use, and a existent occupation for anyone wanting to marque 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 the strategy for astir a year, and it starts with a precise aged mode of typing: T9. T9 was created by necessity, backmost successful the days erstwhile cellphones’ lone buttons were the fig keys. (Here’s a demo for the uninitiated.) TVs are likewise constrained by their directional pad — connected astir set-top boxes and astute TVs there’s nary different mode to type.

The Direction9 strategy works similar this: each the letters are arrayed successful a three-by-three fig grid, with aggregate letters assigned to each number, conscionable similar T9. When you unfastened the keyboard, your cursor defaults to the middle, and you click astir to the missive you’re looking for. Every clip you click the mediate fastener to prime a letter, the cursor jumps backmost to the center, which means you’re ever lone a click oregon 2 from the missive you’re looking for.

You tin usage the keyboard a “smart” mode, which tries to foretell which connection you’re looking for — click the “abc” button, past the “def” button, and past “def” fastener again, and it mightiness conjecture you were typing “bed.” You tin besides crook it disconnected and benignant much manually: erstwhile you click connected “abc,” it pops up a caller array that lets you prime betwixt letters.

The remainder of the keys you’d request — Enter, Space, Back, and truthful distant — are arrayed astir the sides of this grid. Direction9’s instrumentality present is that you don’t really person to property participate to prime them; conscionable click-click implicit to the Enter fastener and it automatically submits.

Direction9 CEO Leon Chang really exhibited an aboriginal mentation of this keyboard at past year’s CES. But helium tells maine Direction9 is present successful talks with companies to get its keyboard into streaming apps and connected astute TVs; for the moment, though, it’s inactive axenic vaporware.

The full process sounds somewhat complicated, but I picked it up successful 30 seconds lasting astatine Direction9’s booth astatine CES Unveiled. Chang said portion of the software’s entreaty is that you tin yet larn to bash it without adjacent looking, and aft a infinitesimal oregon 2 I was capable to bash conscionable that. The astute prediction bundle seemed to conflict with much analyzable words similar “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 enactment of letters doesn’t, but it’s the fastest I’ve ever typed connected a TV. That has to number for something.