Google and Microsoft Now Have Smartphone Apps for People with Small Hands

One novel solution to the scourge of huge smartphones? Tiny keyboards.

Both Microsoft and Google recently released keyboard apps that are designed to be used with only one hand, addressing concerns that the gargantuan size of many of today's best-selling smartphones alienate people whose hands don't approximate the size of a catcher's mitt.

The keyboard apps, Microsoft Word Flow (iOS) and the less imaginatively named Google Keyboard (Android), sit tucked away in the lower left- or right-hand corner of your smartphone, whether it's the big-for-Apple iPhone 6s Plus or just-plain-big Galaxy Note 5.

Already the apps, barely a few days old, have generated nothing but praise from early users, with one App Store reviewer calling it a "godsend" for people who have "baby hands."

"[Word Flow] has allowed people like me… to finally be able to type comfortably whilst one-handed," the reviewer, going by the nome de plume "Personally Anonymous," noted. "Hallelujah."

Neither Word Flow nor the new Google Keyboard require any degree of re-training to anyone who's used apps like Swype or SwiftKey, both of which have been around for several years. Besides the marquee feature of being tucked away in a corner, both keyboard apps let you smoothly swipe between characters (rather than having to be tapped individually) to type. Both also offer predictive input, where the app automatically suggests words after you type only a character or two.

As such, Word Flow is a clear improvement over the default iOS keyboard (which doesn't support swipe typing), while the new Google Keyboard is more of a welcome addition to an already perfectly adequate mobile typing experience.

While these apps may prove to be useful for more than a few people, they still don't necessarily help people whose hands are so small that they have trouble balancing the slab of plastic and glass in one hand. Perhaps a diminutive Sony Xperia is in their future?

The one-handed keyboards are just the latest attempt by technology companies to compensate for the fact that while big smartphones may be great for watching YouTube, Netflix, or fake fighting, they're not particularly well-suited for those times when you only have one hand free—straphanging on the subway, say—or when you're struggling to tap an icon in the upper third of the display. Double-tapping the home button of an iPhone lowers the entire user interface by about halfway down the screen, placing out-of-the-way icons within reach of even the shortest of thumbs. And some Android devices, including recent Samsung Galaxy models, have even introduced dedicated one-hand modes that shrink the entire user interface so that it fits in a small section of the display.

Of course, given that people really like watching video on their smartphone, don't expect the era of the big phone to go away any time soon, Apple's iPhone SE notwithstanding.