T9 (predictive text)

Logo of T9
Logo of T9

T9 is a predictive text technology for mobile phones (specifically those that contain a 3×4 numeric keypad), originally developed by Tegic Communications, now part of Nuance Communications. T9 stands for Text on 9 keys.[1]

T9 was used on phones from Verizon, NEC, Nokia, Samsung Electronics, Siemens, Sony Mobile, Sanyo, SAGEM and others, as well as PDAs such as Avigo during the late 1990s. The main competing technologies include iTap created by Motorola, SureType created by RIM, Eatoni's LetterWise and WordWise, and Intelab's Tauto. It still is used on niche products as Punkt mp-02.

T9 is available on certain phones without a touchscreen, and is available on Apple iPhone (as of iOS 18)[2] and Android phones as a custom keyboard.

The technology was protected by multiple US patents, but they have since expired.[3][4][5][6]

  1. ^ Nuance Communications press release Archived 2007-10-13 at the Wayback Machine (2007).
  2. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20240918014910/https://9to5mac.com/2024/09/16/ios-18-adds-t9-dialling-iphone/
  3. ^ US 5818437 
  4. ^ US 5953541 
  5. ^ US 6011554 
  6. ^ US 4650349