Thumb-Key
Shares rank 11 of 12 keyboard apps by recommenders
Free two-row, 16-key smartphone keyboard that people recommend for fast thumb typing, including on very small devices.
Free two-row, 16-key smartphone keyboard that people recommend for fast thumb typing, including on very small devices.
6 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Fast on tiny phone screens
“i was pretty quick with thumbkey, it's nice on even a tiny device like a Jelly Star”
Comment from 26 Nov 2025 in “Surprisingly, Emacs on Android is pretty good” “MessagEase or ThumbKey + Jelly Star is a perfect match.”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Jolla on track to ship new phone with Sailfish OS, user-replaceable battery” Works well for everyday use
“Thumb-Key is awesome and I can't live without it.”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “FUTO Swipe – A new swipe typing model” “it works quite well for my purposes”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “iPhone Typos? It's Not Just You – The iOS Keyboard Is Broken [video]”
Other keyboard apps people recommend
The four most recommended other keyboard apps, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gboard | 59 | 43 | 58% | 10 | — | — |
| FUTO Keyboard | 51 | 22 | 70% | 12 | 1 yr4 owners | Approved |
| FUTO Swipe | 40 | 18 | 69% | 1 | — | — |
| iOS keyboard | 28 | 182 | 13% | 8 | 10 yrs9 owners | — |
| Thumb-KeyThis page | 6 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
All 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“think Unexpected Keyboard doesn't go far enough”
“Thumb-Key is awesome and I can't live without it.”
“MessagEase or ThumbKey + Jelly Star is a perfect match.”
“it works quite well for my purposes”
“the swipe-style keyboard cut my typos by ~90%”
“I use the latter for my mobile text input needs. However, that method is sometimes prone to typos”
“i was pretty quick with thumbkey, it's nice on even a tiny device like a Jelly Star”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.