How to create your own text shortcuts on your phone

Do you ever wish there was a quicker way of replying to a text or email? There actually is, and I have a nifty little trick up my sleeve to show you how to speed up sending texts and emails.

It’s a clever shortcut that saves you time and brainpower when you’re on the go. With this great feature, all you have to do is type in a short phrase, and presto! Your phone will automatically replace it with the longer, more elaborate version you create.

For example, whenever I want to refer to my moniker ‘CyberGuy”, all I have to do is type “cg” and it does the rest. When I type my initials “kk”, it converts it on the fly automatically to “Kurt Knutsson”. It’s simple and saves so much time.

How to create your own text shortcuts on your iOS device

All you have to do is just follow these steps below to unlock the power of phrase-replacing with the Text Replacement feature.

Click Settings
Click General
Click Keyboard
Click Text Replacement (2nd row)
Click the “+” button at the top
Enter a phrase and the associated shortcut
Click Save in the upper right-hand corner

Most popular shortcuts

You can create a shortcut similar to these frequently used ones you see below:

Phrase: Be right back
Shortcut: BRB

Phrase: Good Bye
Shortcut: GB

Phrase: Good Morning
Shortcut: GM

Phrase: OMW
Shortcut On My Way!

Phrase: Thank you
Shortcut: TK

Phrase: Talk to you later
Shortcut: TTYL

text shortcuts on your mobile device

After you create your shortcuts, now, try opening an email or text message and typing your shortcut, and then press return. You’ll see that your phone will now automatically swap that shortcut out for the longer phrase.

How to delete a text shortcut on your iOS device using text replacement

Let’s say you now want to delete a text shortcut that you’ve created using text replacement. Here’s how to get rid of it on your iOS device.

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How to create your own text shortcuts on your Samsung device

Settings may work on other Android devices, although it may vary depending on your Android phone’s manufacturer

Click Settings
Scroll to General management
Click Samsung Keyboard settings
- If you have a different keyboard set as your default, head to Keyboard list and default to find Samsung Keyboard – for this trick to work, you’ll need Samsung Keyboard set as your default. You can do that at the top of this page. Then, select “Samsung Keyboard” before the next step.
- Select Text Replacement
Click More typing options, or on some devices, you may not see this, and you can proceed to click Text shortcuts and then click the ADD/+ button in the upper right
Enter the shortcut and the expanded phrase and then click “add“

How to delete a text shortcut on your Samsung device

To delete a text shortcut you created on your Samsung device, access the keyboard settings and remove the desired shortcut entry from the list. Here’s how to do it.

Click Settings
Scroll to General Management and click it
Click Samsung Keyboard settings
Click More typing options, or on some devices, you may not see this, and you can proceed to click Text shortcuts and then find the text shortcut you want to delete and click on it
Click the Delete button or the trash can in the upper right of the screen. Then hit delete again to confirm your decision.

MORE: HOW TO DICTATE TEXTS TO YOUR PHONE AND COMPUTER THE EASY WAY

Kurt’s key takeaways

If you want to save some time sending texts and emails, go ahead and create some custom shortcuts on your iOS or Android device and let your phone work its wizardry, saving you time and brainpower when you’re on the go.

With a little phrase-replacing magic, “BRB” becomes “Be right back,” “GM” transforms into “Good Morning,” and “OMW” magically expands to “On my way!” So go ahead, unlock the power of text replacement, and let the shortcuts do the talking.

If you ever change your mind, you can always delete the shortcuts just as easily as you created them. Happy texting and emailing.

What are some other time-saving smartphone tricks or features you wish more people knew about? Let us know by commenting below.

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