An iOS keyboard with a number row, and what it costs
The iPad keyboard has a number row. The iPhone one does not, and every digit you type costs a trip through the 123 key and back.
Whether that matters is a counting question, not a taste question. Look at what you wrote yesterday and count the digits.
Count the round trips.
One address, one time, one amount: that is three trips out of the letters and three back. The taps are not the whole cost. The mode change moves every key you were aiming at, so your thumb has to find the layout again afterwards.
The row costs height.
A number row is an extra line of keys, and the space is not free. Either the keyboard grows taller and eats the message field above it, or the letter keys shrink to make room. Any keyboard offering you a number row is making that trade, so it is worth asking which way.
On a small phone the answer matters more. Check it in a chat app with a long thread, not on a blank screen.
Long-press is the other half.
Digits are only part of what lives behind 123. Brackets, currency signs and the dash you meant are behind a second page after that. A keyboard that puts symbols on long-press of the letter keys removes both trips at once.
The stock iPhone keyboard does have long-press, but it gives you accented letters, not symbols. That is a different feature solving a different problem.
Where EFKey fits.
The number row is a switch, and so is nearly everything around it. Height goes from 75 to 115 percent, so you decide whether the extra row comes out of the keys or out of the screen. Keys can be made wider on their own.
Long-press gives symbols on the letter row, and the hints printed on the keys have three settings: all of them, digits only, or none. Hold the comma key or 123 and the settings open inside the keyboard, so you can try a height while you are typing rather than in a menu two screens away.
Where it does not.
Turn the number row on at 115 percent height on a small iPhone and you will see less of the conversation. That is arithmetic, and no keyboard gets around it.
Long-press hints also put a second character on every key. Some people read that as useful and some read it as noise, which is why it can be turned off. Either way your thumbs need a day to stop aiming at the old places.
Quick answers.
Does the number row make the keyboard taller?
It does, unless you bring the height back down. Height is adjustable from 75 to 115 percent, so the row can come out of the key size instead of the screen.
Can I keep the number row and still have symbols on long-press?
Yes. They are separate switches and neither one turns the other off.
Does the number row cost anything?
No. It is part of the free keyboard, along with long-press symbols and the height setting.
Keep reading.
Ready when you are.
One conversation is enough to tell.
