So I’ve decided that I want to call my colleague Peter to ask him if he wants to grab some beers. Typically, I’d have to swipe to the next pane and dig him out of my contacts list, which is only made worse by the fact that he’s not on my favorite contacts roll (sorry, Peter). Using the T9-style virtual keyboard, however, I can skip the digging part and call him right way. This method is available on virtually all Android devices.

What you want to do is use the letters underneath each number (1-9), trying to construct the name of the contact. In this case, I’m going for 7-3-8 for ‘Pet…’, which the Dialer instantly understands and serve to me. The app also served me any other matches starting with these three letters. From here on now, I just need to call.

This may seem needlessly complex if you’re not used to T9 keypads, but it actually grows on you extremely fast (you’ll have to trust us). We know, it may seem like having to remember which letters are assigned to which number is hard work, but it makes intuitive sense real quick. Before long, you’ll find that you’re dialing that way constantly. 

Extra tip: Double tap on the green call button on any Android phone, and you’ll dial your last contact.