Why phone typing speed and desktop typing speed are different

Almost everyone types slower on a phone than on a physical keyboard. That is not a lack of practice. They are different skills on different equipment, and a score from one says very little about the other.

Two thumbs against ten fingers

On a keyboard, up to ten fingers share the work and each one rests near its own keys. On a phone, two thumbs cover every letter. More of the typing time goes on travelling between keys, and the next finger cannot get into position early in the same way.

Nothing to feel

Physical keys have edges, travel and a click. Your fingers know when they are in the right place and when a key has gone down. Glass gives none of that, so phone typing leans on your eyes far more.

Smaller targets

A phone key is a fraction of the size of a keyboard key, and a thumb is wider than the key it is aiming at. Phone keyboards cope by guessing which key you meant. When that help is removed, as it is in a fair test, small misses show up as errors.

Typical numbers

Large studies of everyday typists have put average keyboard speed at around 50 WPM and average phone speed in the mid-30s, with a wide spread in both. Practised typists do far better than average on either device. The gap between the two is normal.

Why Thumbster keeps them apart

Thumbster is a thumb typing competition. If keyboard scores were allowed on the leaderboards, they would crowd out every phone score and the rankings would stop meaning anything. So you can take the test on any device, but only phone scores are official. A desktop run is saved as practice and is never ranked. The details are in what makes an official Thumbster score.

Does one help the other?

A little. Knowing the QWERTY layout carries over, and so does the habit of reading ahead. The movements themselves do not. The only way to get faster with your thumbs is to practise with your thumbs. Start with how to type faster on your phone.