How To Tap Less On Your Phone And Get More Done!

Most of us spend hundreds of hours every day tapping the glasses of our smartphones!

But what if there was a way you could much more while still giving your fingers that much-deserved break?

Not only will this free up your hands to handle other tasks, but also save you the stress of always having to check your phone every now and then.

Keeping this in mind, here are some excellent ways in which you can get more things done efficiently on your phone with fewer taps on your phone.

Set up self-expanding abbreviations
You probably do a lot of repetitive typing on your tiny onscreen keyboard.

You enter your contact information into one website after another. You reply to dozens of emails. You text stock phrases like “Got it — thanks” or “On my way!”

Fortunately, you can set up short, quick-to-type text abbreviations (like ph) that type out much longer expressions

To set up these shortcuts, begin like this:

iPhone: Tap Settings, then General, Keyboard, Text Replacement.

Android: Open Settings, then Language & Input. From here, the navigation depends on your phone model and Android version; you’re looking for Personal Dictionary. Getting there might involve tapping things like System, Advanced, Virtual Keyboard or Dictionary. (Some keyboards offer no text expansion at all.)

In either case, when you tap +, you see boxes for both the phrase you want to be typed and the abbreviation (called Shortcut on the iPhone). Fill them in, tap Save and then try out your new tap-saving device in any app.

Use Voice-Assistance

You’re forgiven if you’ve abandoned the dictation features of Siri or Google Assistant. Text-to-speech is still an imperfect technology.

But the other function of these voice assistants — executing tasks — is far more reliable, and you’re probably not using it enough.

You can start simply by adopting five new voice commands.

Set your next alarm with “Wake me at 7:30 a.m.,” which saves seven taps.

Avoid fumbling in the dark by saying “Turn on the flashlight” (two taps). Saying, “Text Casey that I’m running 15 minutes late” saves about 24 taps, and “What’s my next appointment?” saves a few more.

It’s also worth learning to say, “Do not disturb” as you enter a movie theater, a meeting or your bed.

Make A Home Screen Bookmark

To open a website, you usually tap to open your phone’s browser, tap for your list of bookmarks, then tap the bookmark you want. Or, worse, you painstakingly type in the web address.

But you can also create bookmark “app” icons on your home screen that require only a single tap to open.

To create one, open the web page. Then:

iPhone: Tap the Share button (bottom center of the screen). Scroll the bottom row of icons until you can tap “Add to Home Screen.”

Android: Tap the Menu button at the upper-right corner, which looks like three stacked dots. Tap “Add to Home screen.”

In either case, edit the icon’s name, if you like, and then tap Add. From now on, getting to your favorite site requires only a single sloppy tap.

Squeeze for silence
When your phone rings at a bad moment — at a movie, for example, or in church — don’t extend the embarrassment by pulling it out and fumbling for the Ignore button.

Instead, just reach into your pocket or purse and squeeze the phone. Pressing any button on the edge of the phone means “Silence the ringing, stop the shame” — and when you grasp the phone this way, you’ll hit one of those buttons in a hurry.

Customize your Controls

Today’s smartphones are almost ridiculously customizable. A typical iPhone’s Settings app contains over 11,000 options

Fortunately, you can (and should) edit this panel, so that the settings you need often are there at your fingertips.

iPhone: Tap Settings, Control Center, Customize Controls. In the list of options, the plus signs mean “add this button” and the minus signs mean “remove it.” Drag them (using the right-side handle) to reorder them.

Android: Swipe down twice from the top of the screen and then tap the pencil button or the Edit button.

On this screen, you can rearrange the Settings buttons by dragging. See the “Hold and drag to add tiles” area at the bottom?

If you touch one of these extra buttons until the phone vibrates, you can then drag upward to install it onto the Quick Settings panel.

Conversely, if you touch-until-vibrate on one of the currently installed buttons, a “Drag here to remove it” area appears at the bottom.